President Jimmy Carter was an outlier in more ways than one.

Born and raised on the humble farmlands of southern Georgia, Carter grew up without running water and used an outhouse. He played with the Black children in his community during a time of intense racial segregation in the U.S.

Despite societal norms and political pressure, Carter often followed his instincts and did what he believed was right, according to Kai Bird, biographer and author of The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter.

“He was always the smartest boy in the room in school,” Bird said. “And as president, he always thought he was the most intelligent, most well-read person in the room. So, he was faced with a dilemma, and that’s because he had ambition.”

Carter was a Southern Baptist, who believed pride was a great sin.

“He knew he had a lot of pride and ambition,” Bird said. “And so the way he reconciled this was to say to himself, ‘I will achieve power. I will do whatever I can to win the presidency or the governorship. And then when I do, I will do the right thing regardless of the political consequences. I will be righteous.’”

Carter served one presidential term as the 39th president of the United States. His term was filled with remarkable highs, like leading peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt, and irreversible lows, like his inability to repair a failing American economy. But, true to form and unlike other presidents, Carter excelled after his presidency, winning a Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian and peace initiatives.

Even in the last year of his life, Carter continued to mark milestones. This year he celebrated his 100th birthday — becoming the oldest living former president — and met his goal of voting for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

NPR’s Steve Inskeep spoke to Bird about Carter’s legacy as a politician, president and person.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Steve Inskeep: Why was [Jimmy Carter] an outlier, as you called him?

Kai Bird: He was an outlier in all sorts of ways. He grew up in south Georgia playing as a child with African-Americans. He was the only white boy in Archery, a tiny hamlet outside of Plains, Ga. So, that’s the most unusual childhood. He grew up in very Spartan circumstances, no running water, an outhouse. He sort of was a president still from the 19th century. And then as a politician, he was a southern white man who was a liberal, and yet he was also a politician who cared not for the political consequences of his decisions. He just always wanted to do the right thing. So, he was an outlier. He was a very unusual kind of politician.

Inskeep: I learned from your book that he grew up in this very rural way, but also was kind of an elite family locally, because his father had a number of Black workers and this was part of the unequal or patriarchal society that he then tried to change or improve.

Bird: Yes. You know, he grew up in deep segregation, a time when the South and much of the country was still dealing with racial segregation. And yet he empathized with the Black people that he grew up with. And when he became governor, he announced in his inauguration statement that the time for racial discrimination is over. Shocking his audience.

Inskeep: In 1979, he gave a famous speech about a crisis of confidence in America, doubt about the meaning of our own lives. I’m quoting his words now, ‘A loss of unity, of purpose for our nation, the erosion of our confidence in the future.’

This was well received at first, as you write. It was then criticized. Does it seem somehow prescient today?

Bird: Yes. He went on in that famous speech to say something quite extraordinary, saying too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Now, he’s taking a page straight out from Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism, which he had just recently read. But this also spoke to his Southern Baptist sense of morality and righteousness. And it was a sermon. And I think it’s very prescient today, because we’re still living in a culture, a political culture that is quite narcissistic.

I think history will judge Jimmy Carter as a president well ahead of his times. He’s, I would argue, the most intelligent and hardworking and decent man to have occupied the Oval Office in the 20th century.

Obed Manuel edited the digital story.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter holds up a copy of his book Faith: A Journey For All at a book signing event at Barnes & Noble bookstore on March 26, 2018.

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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter holds up a copy of his book Faith: A Journey For All at a book signing event at Barnes & Noble bookstore on March 26, 2018.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Throughout his lifetime, Jimmy Carter held many titles: 39th president of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize winner, philanthropist, humanitarian, artist – and writer.

In his role as an author, Carter wrote mostly non-fiction, on everything from war and peace to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to faith, personal reflections on his childhood and aging – and even fishing. But he also dabbled in fiction – with a children’s book, Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer, illustrated by his daughter, Amy, and a novel, The Hornet’s Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War.

Carter published his first book, a campaign autobiography titled Why Not the Best? in 1975. Since then, he’s written more than 30 works. “Of all our modern Presidents, Jimmy Carter was America’s most protean author,” his publisher Jonathan Karp, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, said in a statement issued in late February 2023. “In all of his books, he maintained a voice of great integrity and intellectual honesty.”

Carter wrote books about his life and his beliefs. But writers and historians alike have been fascinated with examining and re-examining Carter as a president, his post-Oval office impact, and his legacy. Here, we look at 10 of the best-known titles by or about Jimmy Carter.

5 of Carter’s most widely read books

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

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An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of a Rural Boyhood (2002)

Carter’s memoir details his childhood in a segregated rural Georgia during the Great Depression. He reflects on living in a sharecropping economy, as he paints a portrait of his community and family.

Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis (2006)

Published in 2005, Carter offers a defense of the separation of church and state, as well as his takes on contemporary issues such as women’s rights, abortion, terrorism, and the death penalty.

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (2007)

Written post-White House, Carter presents his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict – sharing his knowledge on the history of the Middle East and offering an assessment of solutions towards peace going forward.

A Full Life: Reflections at 90 (2015)

Even at 90 years of age, Carter didn’t stop writing. In A Full Life: Reflections at 90, Carter looks back at his long life – from growing up in rural Georgia to realizing causes he’s most passionate about – and shares the lessons he’s learned along the way.

Faith: A Journey For All (2018)

As a devout Baptist, religion has always been a key pillar in Carter’s life. But his book Faith: A Journey For All is about much more than that. In it, Carter explores faith’s broader meanings, the different ways that it sustains our lives, and how to find faith even in the darkest of times.

5 of the most-read biographies on Carter

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

The Unfinished Presidency by Douglas Brinkley (1998)

Brinkley’s The Unfinished Presidency focuses on Carter’s resurrection after his defeat to Ronald Reagan in 1980. Brinkley provides observations of Carter’s complex relationships with international figures, as well as his lifelong commitment to world peace.

Jimmy Carter by Julian Zelizer (2010)

Princeton history professor Julian Zelizer examines Carter’s strategy as a maverick politician who was successful at communicating with and rallying voters disaffected by politics, but who faced challenges building a strong political coalition once in office. Post-presidency, Carter remade his image as a key voice for diplomacy and negotiation.

President Carter: The White House Years by Stuart Eizenstat (2018)

Authored by Carter’s chief domestic policy adviser, President Carter: The White House Years provides an in-depth look at the Carter administration. The account draws on more than 5,000 pages of notes from meetings, as well as 350 interviews of major players of the time.

His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life by Jonathan Alter (2020)

In His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life, journalist Jonathan Alter traces the evolution of Carter’s life – from being raised on a farm to working as a naval nuclear engineer to his presidency and its aftermath – painting a portrait of a president who was flawed but committed to uplifting and serving the American people.

The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter by Kai Bird (2021)

Pulling from interviews with Jimmy Carter, his administration, and relevant documents, Bird’s The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter aims to redefine the legacy of the Carter administration, arguing that the 39th president has been largely misunderstood.