Jimmy Carter went ‘from barefoot boy to global icon’, says biographer

Earlier we spoke to the journalist and author Jonathan Alter – who has written a biography of Jimmy Carter.

Jonathan Alter: Jimmy Carter led an epic American life where he went from a barefoot boy with no plumbing, no electricity to a global icon who touched and changed the lives of millions of people, both during and after his presidency.

Cathy Newman: Is it fair to say, though, that his greatest legacy was after he left the White House?

Jonathan Alter: I don’t actually think that is fair to say. Take something like, you know, the Camp David Accords, which are the most enduring peace treaty since World War Two. That and normalisation with China, which is the foundation of the global economy really, the bilateral relationship between these two superpowers. These are real achievements that I think will be as significant a part of his legacy as the work he did in global health and democracy promotion after he left office.

Cathy Newman: And running like a thread through his entire life is this very strong Christian faith. That obviously sustained him politically. But it also sort of conflicted in a way with his liberal instincts, for example, on abortion rights.

Jonathan Alter: Yeah. So he was a liberal Baptist, very devout, prayed many times a day. But he worked in recent years for change in the Baptist church. He just thought it had gone right wing. You know, he was out of sorts on choice with conservative white Christians, but not with plenty of other people of faith.

Cathy Newman: And you’ve described his humility as a man, and he’s been lauded for that characteristic. One thing I read today, you know, he was the only modern president to return full time to the house he’d lived in before he’d entered politics. And reportedly it was worth less than the Secret Service vehicles outside, which were there to protect him. Extraordinary that he kept that sort of humility right to the end.

Jonathan Alter: Yeah. So I don’t know that he was humble because no politician is really humble and he was ambitious for himself, but also ambitious to do something better. He was modest and he did live in that house, which I was in at several occasions, modest ranch home in Plains, Georgia. And that was not fake. I think a lot of politicians, they kind of want to convey that. But he actually lived that. He and his wife, Rosalynn, who was his close partner, they knew each other for 97 years. It’s hard to believe. But yeah, Jimmy’s mother was a nurse and she delivered Rosalynn Smith. But they were married for 77 years. The model of their marriage is also inspirational.

Rosalynn Carter was a formidable figure, and in her own right, she was responsible for the first mental health legislation that we had in the United States. Inoculations of kids going to school, which has now become controversial, did a lot for public health in the United States and abroad. And they were full partners. She was his closest adviser, as he said on many occasions. And interestingly, when he was president, people didn’t like the fact that she had as much influence as she did, but she was smarter than he was politically. And most of her advice was good advice. And in some cases, he probably should have been a little less stubborn and taken his wife’s advice a little more often.