Eizenstat is an insider and fan. But he is hardly blind to Carter’s flaws. He is even cheeky, occasionally ... Through it all, you get a big and colorful cast of characters, not all of them southern, but with the accent on the South ... Eizenstat’s account is fascinating: detailed, intimate, even page-turning ... From Stuart Eizenstat, you can learn a great deal — about Carter, sure, but also about the presidency at large. He took copious notes during his time in the White House and had his eye on everything. He has done meticulous work since. He writes clearly and well. No one can endorse every jot and tittle in the book: no conservative, no liberal, no Carterite (including Carter). But that Eizenstat has contributed something valuable to literature on the presidency is certain.
Eizenstat is no neutral arbiter. A fellow Georgian, he joined Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign and became his White House domestic policy adviser. He is an unabashed admirer who in judging Carter against his presidential peers deems him 'one of the most consequential in modern history' ... relying in part on more than 5,000 pages of his own contemporaneous notes and 350 interviews, including five with his former boss, Eizenstat has produced a thoughtful, measured and compelling account that bemoans Carter’s weaknesses even as it extols his strengths. If readers are not convinced that Carter was the second coming of Kennedy, they will come away with a three-dimensional portrait ... For the following 37 years, Carter’s presidency has been held hostage in a way, too — to the string of missteps, the missed opportunities and the two-dimensional image. He has Eizenstat to thank for seeking to free him from the chains of history and provide a fuller picture.
The author is well positioned to provide an insider’s account of the period between the election of 1976, when Carter defeated President Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory in November 1980 ... For this book, Eizenstat also consulted the voluminous records at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and conducted 350 interviews with top participants from those years. The result is a comprehensive and persuasive account of Carter’s presidency that stands far above the familiar confessional and reveal-all accounts by former White House officials we are accustomed to reading ... Though readers may find the nearly 900 pages of text overwhelming, Eizenstat offers a compelling narrative filled with colorful stories about events such as the Camp David Accords ... Political junkies and presidential-history buffs will love this book ... Regardless of what readers think of Carter’s legacy, the book will interest anyone who wants to learn about a president who took the job of governance seriously.
... notes, combined with access to now-declassified documents, over 350 interviews and his own rich insights reveal important aspects of an often underrated administration in Eizenstat’s extraordinarily detailed and compelling insider’s account, President Carter: The White House Years. The author’s objectivity is exemplary as he points out the president’s 'considerable strengths, which were so admirable, but also of his faults and idiosyncrasies, which were maddening to those closest to him,' and his own missteps. Eizenstat makes a very strong case that Carter’s term 'was one of the most consequential in modern history,' despite the challenges of a post-Vietnam war and post-Watergate scandal era ... This rare chronicle abounds with fine writing and enlightening insights. One could not hope for a better insider’s view.
As one who experienced the Carter presidency up close, Eizenstat draws from his own copious in-the-moment notes, as well as hundreds of interviews, to deliver an exceptionally detailed chronicle of four eventful White House years ... Eizenstat’s taut behind-the-scenes narrative gives readers unexpected reasons to appreciate Carter’s stunning accomplishment in negotiating peace between Egypt and Israel. A compelling reassessment of an oft-maligned chief executive.
... Eizenstat delivers not only an exception but a stunning one: by far the best account of the Carter White House that's ever been written ... He was not only a careful note-taker, but he's also a conscientious researcher; his copious notes include extensive use of contemporary news accounts, wide-ranging use of contemporary memoirs (including, of course, those of the Boss), and, best and most skillfully-marshaled of all, interviews with all of the key players about all of the key events. Every future history of the Carter administration will find Eizenstat's book invaluable ... This is surely the last of the first-hand histories of the Carter White House, and thanks to Eizenstat's skill and mammoth industry, it's also a landmark in how such histories should be written.
Drawing on 5,000 pages of his own 'detailed, often verbatim' notes; 350 interviews with individuals within and outside of the administration (including Carter, his wife, and Walter Mondale); and copious material from the Carter Presidential Library and many other sources, the author has created a mammoth, authoritative, and comprehensive history of four tumultuous years ... An astute, often shocking, behind-the-scenes chronicle.
