President Carter: The White House Years

Stuart E. Eizenstat, who served as Chief Domestic Policy Adviser throughout Jimmy Carter's presidency, provides a comprehensive account of the Carter Administration. Drawing from over 5,000 pages of personal notes taken during his time with Carter—from Carter's political rise in Georgia through four years in the White House—and hundreds of interviews with top officials, Eizenstat documents major policy achievements and challenges. The book covers Carter's brokering of peace between Israel and Egypt, the return of the Panama Canal, and his emphasis on human rights as a presidential priority. Eizenstat examines Carter's passage of America's first comprehensive energy policy, his deregulation of the oil, gas, transportation, and communications industries, and the development of the modern vice-presidency. Eizenstat also addresses significant failures, including the Iranian Hostage Crisis. While Carter's idealism sometimes proved counterproductive, his approach to difficult problems resulted in major, long-lasting accomplishments.