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The Outlier
- The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 27 hrs and 35 mins
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Publisher's summary
“Important...[a] landmark presidential biography.... Bird is able to build a persuasive case that the Carter presidency deserves this new look.” (The New York Times Book Review)
An essential re-evaluation of the complex triumphs and tragedies of Jimmy Carter’s presidential legacy - from the expert biographer and Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of American Prometheus
Four decades after Ronald Reagan’s landslide win in 1980, Jimmy Carter’s one-term presidency is often labeled a failure; indeed, many Americans view Carter as the only ex-president to have used the White House as a stepping-stone to greater achievements. But in retrospect the Carter political odyssey is a rich and human story, marked by both formidable accomplishments and painful political adversity. In this deeply researched, brilliantly written account, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Kai Bird deftly unfolds the Carter saga as a tragic tipping point in American history.
As president, Carter was not merely an outsider; he was an outlier. He was the only president in a century to grow up in the heart of the Deep South, and his born-again Christianity made him the most openly religious president in memory. This outlier brought to the White House a rare mix of humility, candor, and unnerving self-confidence that neither Washington nor America was ready to embrace. Decades before today’s public reckoning with the vast gulf between America’s ethos and its actions, Carter looked out on a nation torn by race and demoralized by Watergate and Vietnam and prescribed a radical self-examination from which voters recoiled. The cost of his unshakable belief in doing the right thing would be losing his re-election bid - and witnessing the ascendance of Reagan.
In these remarkable pages, Bird traces the arc of Carter’s administration, from his aggressive domestic agenda to his controversial foreign policy record, taking readers inside the Oval Office and through Carter’s battles with both a political establishment and a Washington press corps that proved as adversarial as any foreign power. Bird shows how issues still hotly debated today - from national health care to growing inequality and racism to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - burned at the heart of Carter’s America, and consumed a president who found a moral duty in solving them.
Drawing on interviews with Carter and members of his administration and recently declassified documents, Bird delivers a profound, clear-eyed evaluation of a leader whose legacy has been deeply misunderstood. The Outlier is the definitive account of an enigmatic presidency - both as it really happened and as it is remembered in the American consciousness.
Critic reviews
“This beautifully written book will take its place alongside other superb one-volume biographies of American presidents. The Outlier will raise readers’ estimates of Jimmy Carter’s term in office.” (Robert Dallek, New York Times best-selling author of Franklin D. Roosevelt and An Unfinished Life)
"An ‘outlier’ among politicians, Carter shows what democratic politics could be, if the power-hungry, dishonest figures would just get out of the way. Bird’s book offers a rich and compelling account of Carter’s sincere efforts to make American policies match the nation’s ideals.” (The Washington Post)
“A bracing reminder that the 39th president was a man of probity, decency, high hopes, and high moral standards.... Bird’s take on whom he calls ‘our most enigmatic president’ is relentlessly fair-minded. [The Outlier] redeems [Carter’s] presidency and reminds us of how callous we might have been during his years in office.” (The Boston Globe)
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Destiny and Power
- The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 25 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on President Bush’s personal diaries, on the diaries of his wife, Barbara, and on extraordinary access to the 41st president and his family, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham paints an intimate and surprising portrait of an intensely private man who led the nation through tumultuous times.
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Fair and insightful
- By Jean on 12-02-15
By: Jon Meacham
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Reagan
- The Life
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 31 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Ronald Reagan today is a conservative icon, celebrated for transforming the American domestic agenda and playing a crucial part in ending communism in the Soviet Union. In his masterful new biography, H. W. Brands argues that Reagan, along with FDR, was the most consequential president of the 20th century. Reagan took office at a time when the public sector, after a half century of New Deal liberalism, was widely perceived as bloated and inefficient, an impediment to personal liberty.
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Very little about Reagan
- By Jack Merritt on 07-30-15
By: H. W. Brands
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Landslide
- The Unmaking of the President, 1984-1988
- By: Jane Mayer, Doyle McManus
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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The explosive tale of the unraveling of an American president. For six years, Ronald Reagan seemed invincible. But behind the glowing image of success was an administration courting disaster. In this spellbinding book, two top Washington reporters trace the origins of the Iran-Contra affair and the unraveling of the Reagan presidency, taking us deep inside a white house that cared more for stagecraft than statecraft and that mistook a landslide reelection for an unlimited mandate.
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Great reporting
- By daisey on 09-03-23
By: Jane Mayer, and others
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Nuclear Folly
- A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Nearly 30 years after the end of the Cold War, today's world leaders are abandoning disarmament treaties, building up their nuclear arsenals, and exchanging threats of nuclear strikes. To survive this new atomic age, we must relearn the lessons of the most dangerous moment of the Cold War: the Cuban missile crisis. Serhii Plokhy offers an international perspective on the crisis, tracing the tortuous decision-making that produced and then resolved it, which involved John Kennedy and his advisers, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, and their commanders on the ground.
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A Must Read
- By Robert from Brookline on 08-22-21
By: Serhii Plokhy
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FDR
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 32 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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One of today's premier biographers, Jean Edward Smith, has written a modern, comprehensive, indeed ultimate book on the epic life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This is a portrait painted in broad strokes and fine details. We see how Roosevelt's restless energy, fierce intellect, personal magnetism, and ability to project effortless grace permitted him to master countless challenges throughout his life. Smith recounts FDR's personal battles and also tackles head-on and in depth the numerous failures and miscues of Roosevelt's political career.
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Interesting but flawed
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-15-13
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One Nation Under God
- How Corporate America Invented Christian America
- By: Kevin M. Kruse
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Conventional wisdom holds that America has been a Christian nation since the Founding Fathers. But in One Nation Under God, historian Kevin M. Kruse argues that the idea of "Christian America" is nothing more than a myth - and a relatively recent one at that.
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RELIGION, PATRIOTISM, & MAMMON: A TOXIC DANCE
- By James on 05-01-15
By: Kevin M. Kruse
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Being Nixon
- A Man Divided
- By: Evan Thomas
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 20 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In this revelatory biography, Evan Thomas delivers a radical, unique portrait of America’s 37th president, Richard Nixon, a contradictory figure who was both determinedly optimistic and tragically flawed. One of the principal architects of the modern Republican Party and its “silent majority” of disaffected whites and conservative ex-Dixiecrats, Nixon was also deemed a liberal in some quarters for his efforts to desegregate Southern schools, create the Environmental Protection Agency, and end the draft.
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Sympathetic bio
- By Scott on 07-27-15
By: Evan Thomas
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The Man Who Ran Washington
- The Life and Times of James A. Baker III
- By: Peter Baker, Susan Glasser
- Narrated by: Michael Quinlan
- Length: 26 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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For a quarter-century, from the end of Watergate to the aftermath of the Cold War, no Republican won the presidency without his help or ran the White House without his advice. James Addison Baker III was the indispensable man for four presidents because he understood better than anyone how to make Washington work at a time when America was shaping events around the world. The Man Who Ran Washington is a pause-resisting portrait of a power broker who influenced America's destiny for generations.
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We Need Baker Now More Than Ever
- By @Gazi2a on 01-08-21
By: Peter Baker, and others
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Reagan
- An American Journey
- By: Bob Spitz
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 32 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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More than five years in the making, based on hundreds of interviews and access to previously unavailable documents, and infused with irresistible storytelling charm, Bob Spitz's Reagan stands fair to be the first truly post-partisan biography of our 40th president, and thus a balm for our own bitterly divided times. Absorbing and richly detailed, it is a revelatory chronicle of the full arc of Ronald Reagan's epic life - giving full weight to the Hollywood years, his transition to politics and successful run as California governor, and ultimately, his iconic presidency.
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Pretty obvious this was written by a Democrat
- By Amazon Customer on 11-04-19
By: Bob Spitz
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The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 37 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.
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Beware limitations of the reader
- By JFanson on 01-01-19
By: Richard Rhodes
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Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream
- The Most Revealing Portrait of a President and Presidential Power Ever Written
- By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Jim Frangione
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Doris Kearns Goodwin's classic life of Lyndon Johnson, who presided over the Great Society, the Vietnam War, and other defining moments in the tumultuous 1960s, is a monument in political biography. From the moment the author, then a young woman from Harvard, first encountered President Johnson at a White House dance in the spring of 1967, she became fascinated by the man - his character, his enormous energy and drive, and his manner of wielding these gifts in an endless pursuit of power.
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Unfortunately simple slant.
- By Lynda Rands on 01-22-17
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The Age of Eisenhower
- America and the World in the 1950s
- By: William I. Hitchcock
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 25 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In a 2017 survey, presidential historians ranked Dwight D. Eisenhower fifth on the list of great presidents, behind the perennial top four: Lincoln, Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Teddy Roosevelt. Historian William Hitchcock shows that this high ranking is justified. Eisenhower's accomplishments were enormous and loom ever larger from the vantage point of our own tumultuous times.
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A Very Thorough and Balanced Biography
- By John on 05-28-18
What listeners say about The Outlier
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Karen Gaulke
- 03-24-23
Review
Arthur Morey was masterful. Great book, but not quite as great as “His Very Best, by Johnathan Alter.
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- Santa Fe Stan
- 09-14-23
An easy listen very informative and thoughtful
I greatly enjoyed this easy going, clear yet thorough retelling of the Carter years. Carter’s unique background and approach are reflected in this well written book.
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- aaron
- 06-17-21
Nice to be reminded what a GREAT narrator is
Kai Bird is one of the best biographers alive today. I long for the day that his biography on the Bundy brothers, Color of Truth is released on Audible. I remember reading it on a whim when I was in Third Grade, and finding it to be remarkable.
In accordance with Mr. Bird's talents, this book is well-researched, well-paced, and exquisitely detailed. It's pretty much everything you could ask for in a biography. The attention he pays to The Deep South and Carter's being brought up in such a unique place and time in history is particularly laudable.
And it was nice to be reminded that there truly are OUTSTANDING narrators out there, and Arthur Morey is one of them.
Overall, if you have ANY interest whatsoever in learning more about Carter, this book is well worth your time.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Ted W
- 11-16-21
Fascinating
A fascinating look at Jimmy Carter's four years in the White House. Mr. Bird also writes about aspects of Mr. Carter's early life and his post-presidency in this engaging and satisfying story.
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- Tomer Elbaum
- 03-01-23
The Jimmi Carter song of praise
The auther is extremely biased towards Carter. Every one of the many mistakes Carter made were attributed to his stuff, the media and the circemstances. Every one of the successes, and there weren't many of them, were solely attributed to Carter and no one else.
When the auther cliamed that his major achievement was to put a solar panel in the roof of the white house, or that the Israeli-Pestinuan Oslo agreements were due to his ex-president "moral support" to Yasser Arafat, I actually laughed.
Still, the book is well written, Carter is a very interesting human being and the author provide an interesting review of the relevant historic events.
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- Jake hicks
- 04-23-23
timely
A timely look at a seriously underrated President and the revelations about the Shai raises some troubling questions about his “us friends”.
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- Customer
- 11-16-23
Awesome narrator and a great story
A great story on a President I knew very little about. Excellent narration as well.
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- Steve S.
- 07-31-21
Informative, well presented and engrossing
What a fine book! What a fine reader! and, in retrospect, what an amazing person Jimmy Carter is! I found the well presented material for much of the Carter presidency highly interesting and became so faacinated that I found myself searching for any additional minutes within my busy day that I could find to listen to this book that I had a hard time putting down. It leaves me, hefty though it is, with a wish to start all over and go through the book yet once again.
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1 person found this helpful
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- PK energy
- 08-17-23
A nuanced biography
Bird has delivered another great bio.
Fair with both criticism & parise with many moving parts.
Carter had his faults (but is far and away our best former president) but has never been given ful credit for his accomplishments.
A great man of faith who always operated with good intentions.
Bird highlights the roles of Xbig, David Rockefeller and others in bringing the Shah to the US - precipitating the hostage crisis.
Zbig come off as the hawkish villan he was!
He properly roasts Bill Casey & Reagan for the treasonous work to dely the release of the Iranian hostages and deliver the 1980 election to Reagan.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Joyce
- 07-11-22
New Perspectives
The author provides a comprehensive view of the Carter presidency that I did not recall
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