White House Diary

Jimmy Carter kept a private diary. In it, he supplied unvarnished assessments of cabinet members, congressmen, and foreign leaders, and narrated the progress of secret negotiations; he recorded his thoughts and his impressions of White House life, and chronicled the delights and the frustrations of occupying the world’s most powerful political office. Yet this extraordinary document was never made public—until now. By carefully selecting the most illuminating entries, Carter provides us with an astonishingly intimate view of his presidency. Day by day, we see his forceful advocacy for nuclear containment, and his campaign for peace in the Middle East. Remarkably, thirty years after the fact, he has annotated the diary with candid reflections on the people and events that shaped his presidency, and on the many lessons he learned. Offering an unprecedented look inside both the man and his tenure, this fascinating book stands as a unique contribution to the history of the American presidency.