Very interesting book with lots of frank accounts and views - Jimmy Carter's memoir, 'A full life'; 'Reflections at ninety'

Last updated on 1st June 2022

I finished reading one of former US President Jimmy Carter's memoirs, 'A Full life'; 'Reflections at ninety'. Note that Jimmy Carter has written many memoirs and so this memoir gives some aspects of his life story. This book seems to have been written in 2014 and first published perhaps in 2015.

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Readers may want to read my associated earlier post: Started reading two memoirs, one by former Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and another by former US President Jimmy Carter, https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2022/04/started-reading-two-memoirs-one-by.html , 26th April 2022. 

I found the book to be very interesting as the former US President has included lots of details about his life and has been frank about some sensitive things about his life. I now have some idea now about the life he led (even if the memoir is only one of many memoirs by Carter, and so perhaps covers only some aspects of his life), the challenges he faced, his philosophy towards life etc. That's what I like to have after reading an autobiography and so I feel that my expectations have been largely met by the book.

While perhaps a few years earlier itself, I had known about Carter's stint in the US Navy, the book shares many details about it. This completely dispels the impression I had had earlier (prior to knowing a few years ago about Carter's stint in the US Navy), that Jimmy Carter was mainly/only a peanut farmer who became US president, as that's what I recall from what I had read in Indian media as a teenager and young adult (I turned 18 in 1980; Carter was US President from Jan. 1977 to Jan. 1981 and lost the Nov. 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan). Perhaps I had read only the headlines which exaggerate to draw attention like this New York Times 1975 article, Peanut farmer for President, https://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/14/archives/peanut-farmer-for-president-carter.html , Dec. 14th 1975.

Yes, Carter was a peanut farmer but that's not the whole story! He was a farm boy, who did Bachelor of Science in the US Navy, became a US Navy officer who chose to resign from the service after his father died, and then took up his father's occupation as a peanut farmer and agri-businessman in related matters! As a Naval officer, he was a nuclear energy expert especially in context of nuclear submarines, and was a submariner.

The above New York Times article text content does not exaggerate for effect like the article headline. As an example, the article content states, "Jimmy Carter may or may not become President, but he is certainly one of the more interesting men to seek that office in recent times. His career suggests complexity, with its progression from farm boy to naval officer/nuclear scientist to peanut farmer/politician."

Perhaps Indian media articles I read about Jimmy Carter as President of USA, were similar with headlines exaggerating to catch eyeballs (like or similar to 'Peanut farmer is US President') and the article content being a more full description like above NYT article. But perhaps what caught my attention were the exaggerated headlines!

I want to add that the above NYT article goes a lot into Carter's background before becoming US President, with a lot of it being similar to what I read in this Carter book! So, in a way, some of the book's contents are validated by this NYT article.

The book gives a fascinating picture of Jimmy Carter's boyhood in a rural farm in Plains, Georgia - lots of hard work for everybody including Carter's father (his mother was a nurse) but lot of camaraderie among those who worked on the farm, and lots of fun for the young boys. (For some initial years of Carter's life at least) they did not have electricity and running water, and neither did they have indoor toilets! Carter's father was a strict disciplinarian. The tough farm boy life seems to have made Carter a capable youngster.

Carter was the eldest son in the family, with his younger brother being 12 years his junior. Carter's father spent a lot of time teaching and training the farm boy Jimmy Carter about farm work, including carpentry and blacksmith work. The carpentry skills that Carter picked up then led to a lifelong hobby of making furniture for loved ones. An interesting aspect is that most of Carter's mates at the farm were black, but the school he attended was for whites only. 

In summer time when school was closed, Carter, prompted or encouraged by his father, prepared and sold boiled and salted peanuts in Plains town for which he had to walk two miles along the railroad track. Each bag was sold at 5 cents and he would stay in town till all bags were sold, which was usually by dinner time. His typical earnings were a dollar a day (with, I presume, the raw peanuts and material and fuel to salt & boil it, being free, provided by his father). Carter deposited his earnings at his uncle's mercantile store which acted as the town's bank! Carter's father later suggested to him, which he followed, to buy cotton bales with his savings when their price was low, store it in one of the farm's storehouses (free for the boy Carter), and sell them when the price was high. Carter made good money with this, and was able to buy five houses and rent them out, earning around 16 dollars per month! He writes about going on his bicycle every month to these houses to 'corner' every renter and collect the rent! He also mentions about small repairs to the houses that the renters would want, and which Carter would do himself. 

Fascinating to read about how Carter's father taught and supported him to be a small or tiny businessman as a young lad. I think this would have made a deep impression on him, making him very comfortable with life as a rural farmer and agri-businessman, which is what his father was. That may eventually, on his father's death, have contributed significantly to Jimmy Carter resigning from his US Navy submariner and nuclear engineer career to become, like his father, a rural farmer and agri-businessman.

I found the short history of Carter's ancestors to be very interesting as it tells us of the times then. I have gone into some detail here as I am fascinated by history of past few generations. Carter's frankness in sharing this information is great as it helps us get a better idea of those times. Carter writes (pg 4), "These were rough pioneer days as immigrants struggled for existence or preeminence, and even our more recent family history was, to a surprising degree, shaped by violence."

Note that Carter got deeper into his family history after his presidency! While he was president, a religious organization had presented him their research on Carter's family history going back many generations. Using this as a base, Carter dug deeper including having a reunion in 1998 of descendants of his great-great-grandfather Wiley Carter, 200 years after his birth.

Carter writes, "Wiley Carter (1798-1864) was deputized in a sheriff's posse in Wilkes County when he shot and killed a man named Usry." The sheriff testified in the trial that Usry was going to shoot Carter. Both the men were cursing at each other and fired their guns around the same time. Usry got killed.

While Wiley Carter was deemed not guilty in the trial, Usry's family & friends created a lot of resentment in the community. Usry and Carter had been against each other for a long time.

Wiley Carter then bought and moved to a farm near Plains town (Plains was the area where Jimmy Carter was born and raised). His wife had died on delivering their eleventh child and Wiley Carter had remarried. The "Indians" had been forced to leave the area (West Georgia) in late 1820s after which a lottery for the land that Wiley Carter eventually bought, was held in 1833, which was won by the original owner.

Hmm. Utterly fascinating to read this history of US President Jimmy Carter's great-great-grandfather. I mean, it is one thing to watch movies having sheriff's posses and trials in those days in the USA, and quite another to read about actual history involving sheriff's posse, case of death after being shot, and related trial, associated with the family of a former US president who was president during my teenager and young adult days. I also like Carter writing about the "Indians" being forced to leave that area. Native Americans of USA ("Indians") were treated horribly by the European origin settlers in USA! These are the harsh truths of USA's past. I add that I think many countries would have similar harsh truths of the past and so USA is not an exception. I mean, human history is full of war, conquest and domination of the defeated by the victorious.

Wiley's fourth son, Littleberry Walker Carter born in 1829, was Jimmy Carter's great-grandfather. He along with two of his brothers fought the US civil war as artillerymen in the Confederate army, fighting in twenty one battles. After the war, Littleberry Carter bought and operated a farm close to Americus, Georgia. He was killed in a dispute over proceeds of a merry-go-round in 1873.

Littleberry Carter's son, William Archibald Carter, was Jimmy Carter's grandfather, born in 1858. In 1888, he moved to a rural community, Rowena, fifty miles south (of Americus, I presume). He was a farmer, operated 2 sawmills and also owned a cotton gin. [Ravi: Cotton gin is a "machine for cleaning cotton of its seeds", https://www.britannica.com/technology/cotton-gin . Cotton gin machine was invented in 1793 in USA. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/the-early-republic/culture-and-reform/a/the-cotton-kingdom informs us, "The (cotton) gin transformed cotton into a profitable crop by reducing its processing time and making large-scale cultivation possible." Textile mills needed cotton and USA South supplied it. It is very interesting to note that Jimmy Carter's grandfather owned a cotton gin (in USA South).]

In 1903, William Archibald Carter was shot and killed by a man who, as per Jimmy Carter, stole a desk from Carter's cotton gin. As per wiki page of Jimmy Carter's father, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Earl_Carter_Sr., "In 1904, after William Carter was murdered by a business partner, which nine-year old James (President Jimmy Carter's father) witnessed, the Carter family moved to Plains, Georgia."

Hmm. Jimmy Carter's grandfather and great-grandfather were both killed in disputes. I think this history just tells us the reality of life then in those parts of USA. Violent death then was not uncommon, it seems.

After William Carter's death, his family including William Carter's son, James Earl Carter who was Jimmy Carter's father, sold their property (in Rowena), and moved back to Plains, Georgia, buying a farm there in 1904. Earl Carter, a teenager then, was responsible for operating the farm! The book does not mention any serious violent disputes like gunfights (excluding Earl Carter's service in World War I) with respect to Earl Carter. Jimmy Carter was born in 1924 and the impression I get from the book is that Jimmy Carter never saw any such serious violent disputes involving his family members nor was Jimmy Carter himself involved in any such violent dispute. Note that most of the family ancestral history provided in the book is on the male side.

Comments on some other parts of the book ... 

Book has nice paintings made by Carter, along with some pics. Great to see paintings done by President Carter in the book. I mean, I am not so much into appreciation of niceties of paintings as an art form but I like seeing nicely done paintings and when they are done by a former US president, I have greater interest in them.

Carter joining the Naval academy in Annapolis in July 1943 .. interesting description of student life there ... Listening to US President Truman announcement of a "formidable weapon" being dropped on Hiroshima and hoping that that would convince Japanese to surrender.

Carter shares how he dated another girl before dating Rosalynn .. Rosalynn initially turning down Carter's marriage proposal as she had to finish college first but married Carter after finishing junior college which was around the time Carter graduated from the Naval academy with a Bachelor of Science degree.

After graduation in 1946 serving as "electronics officer" among other assignments, in a US Navy ship that was quite old and decrepit ... Moving to a more modern ship a year later ...Challenges involved in family life while serving as US Navy officer including the relatively low salary.

Carter later chooses an option to move to a submarine. The submarine stint is very interesting including the many challenges involved and a scary incident where Carter is almost washed away to sea at night, which may have resulted in his death ... Moving over to a nuclear submarine project.

Carter's account of his experience of segregation (separation of white people from black (and other) peoples) and the gradual move towards desegregation, including in the US armed forces, was interesting. I think such accounts are valuable contributions to history as Carter is a former US president and his words carry weight.

Carter family having 3 children while Carter was serving in the Navy. I liked this balanced description of Carter's life then, including his family life.

Carter's father's illness and death in 1953 ... Carter deciding to leave the US Navy and go back to his family farm business ... Carter frankly writes that he took the decision without discussing it with his wife, Rosalynn, and that his wife was very unhappy with Carter's decision. Carter writes, "We had little money, and I had no prospect for an assured income, so my application had been approved to occupy one of the newly built government housing units in Plains." No wonder that Carter's wife was very unhappy with Carter's decision to resign from the US Navy. Note that Carter was born in 1924 and so was close to 30 years of age and with three children then! What a very risky family decision to take!

Carter getting into father's business without any experience, except as a farm boy, facing some challenges and eventually becoming a successful farmer and agri-businessman was very interesting to me. Carter writes, "I had no idea what I would do back in Georgia, except try to continue my father's work as a farmer with a small supply business that provided fertilizer and seed to other farmers and bought and stored their peanuts during harvest season." About him getting into the nitty-gritty of the work, he writes, "We were in the midst of harvest season for peanuts and cotton, our primary cash crops, and I had a crash course on the job in buying crops from farmers, collecting debts, and bringing in our own crops from the fields." As tractors were not being used then on his farm, some of the farm work ("picking cotton by hand and carrying peanuts on stack poles") was like what it was twelve years earlier when Carter was working on the farm as a boy. 

There were additional demands on tax on Carter's father's estate and also problems of unpaid debt by some customers, which sucked up most of cash available in the estate. Further, the estate was divided into five parts between Carter's mother, brother, two sisters and Carter himself. So it seems that what Carter received as inheritance from his father was not of great financial value. 

For the farm work, Carter had to manage most of the estate of the other heirs too.

Carter learned about the work, including from seven families who had lived on the whole estate as sharecroppers. He took a loan for 10,000 dollars (in 1954, it seems) for buying farm supplies and planting a crop. But that year was bad for that farming area as a harsh drought struck. For year 1954, Carter had a gross income of only $280 (no salaries for him or his wife)! OMG! What a terrible way to start his farming and related business stint! And with a wife and 3 children to take care of! One silver lining was that the very poor income for the year permitted Carter & family to continue living in subsidized housing with monthly rent of $31 only.

I am very glad that Carter wrote about these challenges he faced when he resigned from the US Navy and got into his father's farming and related business. It tells us of how even a late twentieth century president of USA, one of the most powerful countries in the world after World War II, had to struggle for survival in the farming business, at around 30 years of age with a wife and three children. I mean, Carter does not write about any government insurance for failed crops due to drought in Plains, Georgia. That leads me to presume that such government provided or heavily subsidized insurance for farmers was simply not there then. A terrible drought meant that individual farmers got financially battered with limited or no government help, even in mid twentieth century, post World War II USA! 

Carter's bank loan prospects were not good for the next year. But he managed to get a helpful agreement with the fertilizer company to continue the fertilizer sales part of his business. As part of this work he had to manually unload heavy fertilizer bags from truck or railroad car though he hired help too. 1955 was a normal rainfall year helping Carter to settle debts and earn $3,600 of income! Quite amazing to see Carter's hard work and persistence pay off.

In later years, Carter's business grew. He writes, "We first struggled just to make a living and then began to invest our profits into expanding our business." As a business service to other farmers, Carter provided improved means of processing crop harvests and storage. One particular crop - seed peanuts - was very profitable and so Carter contracted with other farmers to use their land for growing seed peanuts.

Carter's mother and siblings sold some to their land to him & his wife, who eventually had 3,200 acres of land! Carter's Warehouse provided needs of local farmers. They also could market crops of their area.

Carter & family moved to a new house and had time for recreation including being part of a "square dance club" which led to them making many new friends.

Carter & his wife were active in the Plains Baptist Church, and soon were teaching Bible lessons on Sunday mornings. Carter also got elected as a deacon and thus played a role in managing the congregation.

Hmm. What a fascinating story of farming and associated business success for a former US Navy submariner and nuclear engineer! I loved reading about this part.

Carter served on the County Board of Education and came to know of the issues faced, including segregation. He headed an evangelical effort sponsored by Rev. Billy Graham to encourage all people (white & black) to "work together as equals in our Christian faith". This was not liked by some and Carter & family had to face resistance.

Before getting into Carter's political life, a disclaimer: Please note that I have a PUBLICLY (POLITICALLY) NEUTRAL informal-student-observer role in these posts that I put up about USA politics. Of course, as I am an Indian citizen living in India, there is no question of me having voted in USA elections. I am a well-wisher of the people of the USA.

Carter's father, James Earl Carter Sr., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Earl_Carter_Sr. , was active as a Democratic Party supporter though he did vote for Republican Party candidates at times. He served on the county board of education and late in his life, he became a state congressman - elected to Georgia House of Representatives as a Democrat. But it was for a short period as he died in the same year of 1953 that he became a state congressman. So Jimmy Carter's father played a community leadership role and was also into politics. That may have made it easier for Jimmy Carter to get into politics

In 1962, Jimmy Carter decided to run for office of Georgia state senator. Carter's description of his political career from the state senator race to his being US President for 4 years is interesting. It forms a big part of the book. A lot of his political career details is also available on Carter's wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter .

Some of the points that were noteworthy to me from Carter's political life: Family involvement in his political campaigns, ability of Carter to get into political campaigns only after he had become an established farmer and agri-businessman so that while he was out campaigning, others from his family could manage the farm and business work, ballot stuffing by his opponent in his first election as state senator which needed Carter to appeal to a judge who nullified votes in the area where ballot stuffing had been done ("no voting booths and no secret ballot" as per Carter's account of the judge's ruling), leading to Carter winning the election ... After two state senator terms, Carter's failed bid in 1966 to be governor of Georgia leading to him getting into a disappointment & disillusionment phase, his sister, an evangelist, helped Carter overcome his "bitterness and despair", Carter becoming a born again Christian, participating in evangelical activities going out to far away communities on "pioneer missions" ... Carter writes in quite some detail about his Christian faith here, which was very interesting for me ... Winning 1970 election to become Georgia's governor (seems like this time his campaign was much better with his family also participating in the campaign) ... Running for president in 1976, reaching out to many families in Iowa state which was the first state to vote in Democratic primary, winning Iowa and New Hampshire in the primary and then winning the next state Florida, eventually winning Democratic party nomination for President, ... Winning the general election against Republican party nominee Ford and becoming President of USA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_United_States_presidential_election informs us that in this presidential election, "Democrat Jimmy Carter of Georgia defeated incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford from Michigan by a narrow victory of 297 electoral college votes to Ford's 240."

The book's coverage of handling of some political issues by Carter as well as political policies of Carter during his presidency is interesting. But in this post I don't want to get into those political issues and political policies.

Carter lost his presidential re-election bid in 1980 to Ronald Reagan.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_United_States_presidential_election states, "Reagan won the election by a landslide, taking 489 electoral votes and 50.7% of the popular vote with a margin of 9.7%" .. "Carter won 41% of the vote, but carried just six states and Washington, D. C." Carter won only 49 electoral votes. Infighting in the Democratic Party seems to have contributed to Republican Party's Reagan winning by a landslide.

The last part of the book describes Carter & his wife's life after they returned back to Plains, Georgia after Carter finished his presidency in January 1981. He began writing books, and writes that sales of these books became the main source of income for him. He & his wife worked on The Carter Center whose work on promoting peace across the world and in fighting disease, is covered in some detail in the book. Carter's association with the 'Habitat for Humanity' charitable work to build houses for the financially challenged is also covered in some detail. Carter writes, "I teach Bible lessons every Sunday I am at home, and Rosalynn and I are active in the affairs of the local community." Great to see that Carter continued to play an active role in his Christian church even at an advanced age of 90, and perhaps continues to play such a role even now.

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Given below are some of my comments on my associated Facebook post:  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/3392039041012649 :

In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited):

As per his wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter... : " Polls of historians and political scientists generally rank Carter as a below-average president." ... So u may be right on the not good pres. part.

But he came across as a nice guy. And he seems to have promoted peace across the world while he was president.

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I don't want to comment on current US political leaders. But I agree that Carter did not come across as sneaky. ... Perhaps he was too honest and straight-forward to be a good president!

...

it is not that i am not interested in policies and stands of current US presidents. I am, to the extent time permits. But i do not publicly comment on these matters as it is divisive and my main public writing interest is spirituality and religion with readers having varied political stands and affiliations.

So i felt the right thing for me is to not publicly comment on current politics not only in USA but also in India and elsewhere.

Further, even in this post on Carter's book my focus has been on Carter's life, rather than his political policies and stands.

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Its ok. It has its pros and cons. But overall, I find it to be helpful in my spiritual reading, writing and sharing. So i am on fb.

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I am very public about me not commenting publicly on current political leaders political policies and stands. It is up to readers to accept my (writing) stand or reject it by choosing to not read my stuff😀😀😀

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Jimmy Carter's Christian charity work was part of the attraction for me to read his life story. I mean, even at an advanced age (90s), the man is into charitable work driven by his Christian faith. I find that inspiring.

Bill Clinton, I think, is a little different - I do not recall reading anything about his Christian charitable work. Perhaps he is not into significant level of Christian charity work.

...

Another reason why I was particularly interested in Carter's life is the rural USA life part. For close to around two decades, I have been living in Puttaparthi which is in rural India even if the main town has lot of ex city people settlers like me, and especially in the last decade I have been reading up and learning about life of the local folk in and around Puttaparthi. The city life I led in Bombay/Mumbai for most of the first 4 decades of my life was vastly different from the typical life of locals in and around Puttaparthi! Rural India life has many, many financial and related challenges, and some great non-financial goodies like better environment (less pollution), a slower life amenable to contemplation, being more connected to traditional roots etc. (some of it good; some of it not-so-good).

So I was very interested to know about Jimmy Carter's life story part dealing with rural Georgia, USA life. The book has a wealth of details about it which was very satisfying and educating for me to read.

...

I was also keenly interested in religious and spiritual life of Carter in rural USA, as locals in Puttaparthi are also very deeply rooted in religion (various religions: Hindu, Muslim, Christian). The book gives good coverage of Carter's Christian church related life in Georgia and I was very happy to know about that.

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[I thank US President Jimmy Carter, author of above mentioned 'A full life' book, and its publisher, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing few extract(s) from the book on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]