Great modern american historians. One of the things that makes him great, he really mines the resources of president ial libraries. He has come here to the carter library, gone through and found very interesting documents other people had not seen before. Hes done that at other president ial libraries. Combined with that, he has also mined the resources of archives on various evangelical organizations that have become involved in politics. In addition to that, on top of his Research Skills he is an excellent writer. I had the privilege of reading many of his books including the one thats just come out. I can tell you as much as i have followed the subjects and done my own research, there were many points i came across new information, i said, wow, that really explains whats going on. If you want to understand the difference in the United States between the 1970s and 1980s. In case you have forgotten, there were very significant differences and you wanted to know about the transition to a time jimmy carter was president to a time Ronald Reagan was president , if you want to understand the role of billy graham in american politics or the role of Jerry Falwell in american politics, this is the book for you. I highly recommend it. As i say, i read it personally and found it very fascinating. I think all of you will, too. Before you rush out to buy the book you have the privilege of hearing comments from the author himself. I give you randy ballmer. [ applause ] thank you, jay, for that very kind introduction. Its wonderful to be back here. I did a lot of archival work at the Carter Center. The last time i was here the museum was being refurbished. I spent more than three hours this afternoon going through the exhibit and the guards had to chase me away at 4 45. I was utterly engrossed by it, a remarkable experience. I probably learned a few things i didnt know before going through that museum. I want to talk a little bit about carter tonight obviously. I want to tell you first of all my interest in it. I went to a Small College in illinois, not wheaton college. I wasnt good enough to get into wheaton college. I went to Trinity College in deerfield, illinois in the 1970s. It was during my time as a College Graduate jimmy carter burst out onto the National Scene. I group as an evangelical and attending an evangelical college. What was remarkable to me he talked unabarbedly about being a born again christian. It is a term we used to describe ourselves but we were cowering and ashamed of it. Jimmy carter didnt. He came on the National Scene and saying, yes, im a born again christian. It was for me and others, a wakeup call. A man running for president and taken seriously running for president able to talk about his faith in very unabarbed unapologetic terms. I began taking notice of that. I followed his career over the years and resolved at some point i wanted to write a book about jimmy carter. I have to say i have been brewing with this idea probably two decades now. Over the last decade or so i was doing research and got around to writing this book when my schedule permitted me to do that. I want to say, i think authors are always making claims for themselves which is maybe not justified, but it is, i think, the first biography of jimmy carter to take his faith seriously as a way of understanding both himself, his conduct as president and beyond, also the very turbulent religious times in which he lived. Thats what i want to talk about today because thats the core of the book. I will do a few things in terms of background. Sure you know details already. Jimmy carter was born october 21st, 1944 in plains, georgia, the first president to be born in the hospital because his mother, Lillian Carter, was a nurse and he was the first president to be born in a hospital in history. He went to Plains High School and went to the u. S. Naval academy, which had been his dream ever since he was a boy to do that. He was commissioned into the navy and admitted to the Nuclear Submarine program. In 1953, his father, james earl carter, sr. Succumbed to his two pack a day habit and jimmy carter was granted leave to go back to plains. That was a revelatory moment. He saw what his fathers life meant to so many people in plains, things he did not know about earl carter, providing money to provide new clothes for his daughter to celebrate graduating high school, some things they couldnt do other times. Times he carried other peoples mortgages when they were too poor and too strapped to do so. The times he extended credit to various members of the family. Jimmy carter returned to his posting in schenectady, new york, to have has life like his father and do good things his father had done in the community. The one dissenter about the decision to leave the navy was roslyn carter, who was not amused by this development, apparently, as near as i can tell and probably people in the audience to confirm this or deny it, the car trip from schenectady, new york to play ins, georgia, was plains, georgia, was almost complete silent, two very strong people and apparently the word divorce cropped up more than once in that transition for them. Carter takes over the business, not successful in his first year, less than 200 profit for the carter business interests, but then he quickly begins to build this into a growing concern. He also begins to look more broadly at service to the community including service on the sumpter County School board. On his 38th birthday, october 1st, 1962, jimmy carter gets out of bed and puts on his sunday trousers rather than his work trousers and goes to americas to file for the Georgia StateSenate Without consulting roslyn before doing so. When i asked mr. Carter about doing this a year ago in plains, he said, i still cant believe i did that because he wouldnt dream of making such a decision like that today without consulting his wife. Times were very different in 1962 than now in the 21st century. The election was contested because of widespread corruption in quitman county, i forget the numbers, there were like 420 ballots cast in the county and only 300 some registered voters. For some reason or not the voters in quipman county managed to vote in alphabetical order down to the last letters of their name, a remarkable day for georgia politics. Carter finds out about this. Hes morally outraged. If you read turning point, i have to say is my Favorite Book of his. Turning point bristles with moral outrage and righteous indignation because he had been robbed of his election and he mounts a campaign to win the seat he is granted in january of 1963. Carter then runs for governor in 1966. He runs as what qualifies in georgia at the time as a racial moderate and beaten by of all people, Lester Maddox. He was notorious in georgia for his segregationist ways, on the day after Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, lester greeted three africanamericans at the parking lot of his restaurant with an axe handle threatening to drive them away or driving them away from eating in his restaurant because he did not want a desegregated restaurant. Lester maddox uses this to catapult himself to the governorship. Jimmy carter is disconsulate, he lost 22 pounds in the campaign. He lost a lot of money. The family put a lot of money into that campaign. He returns to plains really not sure what he will do. There are family accounts that have him Walking Around fields around plains, just not knowing how to proceed. Very often with tears in his eyes. The following year he has this famous encounter with his sister, ruth carter, a pentecostalist, and gives his life to jesus which seems to be transformative. He speaks of that not as the born again experience in 1935 at the Plains Baptist Church but renewal, rejuvenation of his faith. On the heels of that, jimmy carter goes on two mission trips, one to lock haven, pennsylvania with other baptist laymen knocking on doors to tell people about jesus, and again in springfield, massachusetts, in november of that year, with a cuban american pastor by the name of eloy cruz from brooklyn or bronx, steve, help me out here. I believe its brooklyn. This was again a very formative moment for jimmy carter. The end of their week together, carter asks reverend cruz how it is he is such a strong christian and strong believer and how hes so effective dealing with other people. Eloy cruz tells carter the secret to a life of faith or being a good christian is two things, to love god and love the person in front of you at any given time. He repeats this, carter does, many times, over the course of his life, being a formative moment for him. He never loses sight of the Georgia Statehouse. In 1970 he launches yet another campaign, this time successful to be governor of georgia. This is not a pretty campaign. Not much is said about this by mr. Carter and others. Jimmy carter does court the segregationist vote in this campaign. The final days of the campaign, he endorses Lester Maddox, who is running for lieutenantgovernor. At that time, governors of georgia could not succeed themselves and carter endorses Lester Maddox and seeks and wins some of the segregationist endorsements in georgia. Hes uneasy about that even at the time, good reason for that. He tells Vernon Jordan head of the Negro College fund you wont like my campaign but like the evidence. It is conclusive there is some evidence after that campaign, carter apologizes to his opponent, former governor carl sanders for carters conduct during that campaign. It was not exactly a sterling moment in the life of jimmy carter. I think he realizes that and regrets it. He takes office as governor of georgia on january 12th, 1971 and famously says, the time for Racial Discrimination is over. This is in part what elevates him in a national profile. The new york city picked up on that and above the fold there is an article about jimmy carter and his inauguration of georgia and what he said to the people of georgia and within a couple weeks Time Magazine puts him on the scorch as a new south post racial governor and mentioned that article where dale bumpers of arkansas and rub ruben askew of florida but carter was the one on Time Magazine. Carter almost immediately begins to think of running for president after being governor of georgia for who knows, a few days, before he begins to looking for larger horizons. About the time or within day or two of George Mcgoverns cataclysmic loss to Richard Nixon in 1962, carter sits down with Hamilton Jordan and other advisors and begins to plot out his rise to the presidency four years later. At the end of 1973, beginning of 1974, two remarkable events took place within six months of each other. Here, the narrative is going to verge a little bit more towards religion and faith. Over thanksgiving weekend in 1973, in chicago, illinois, at the wabash ymca in the southside of chicago, 55 evangelicals meet at the ymca and hammer out a document called the chicago declaration of evangelical social concern. This is a remarkable document. I think in many ways. The strain of evangelicalism that is offered in this document. Available on the web. You can look at it for yourself. It is part of what i call progressive evangelicalism, which takes its mandate, i believe, from the new testament, jesus talks about the followers to care for the least of these and turn the other cheek. Also historically the evangelicals in the 19th century and early 20th century very much concerned about those on the margins of society. In the antebellum period in particular coming out of an event of historians called the second awakening in the 19th century, there was an evangelical reform impulse that did reshape American Society over the course of the 19th century. Charles granderson finney would be one of the most important People Associated with this movement. This movement sought to Reform Society according to the norms of godliness. They were very much involved in abolitionism to eradicate the scourge of slavery. They were also involved in such issues as prison reform, the idea of a penitentiary came into vogue, a criminal could become penitent and we hope constructively rejoin society in a much more salutary way. The issue of equal rights for women, including Voting Rights in the 19th century was a radical idea. Evangelicals were very much involved in formation of common schools, Public Education today, as a way for those on the bottom rungs of society to aspire to a better life and try to afire to move into the middle class. Other campaigns society with this movement is the campaign against dueling, inaugurated by a presbyterian minister in connecticut, because he thought dueling was barbaric. There were peace crusades in the early part of 19th century and campaign of gun control. Imagine that. In the early part of the 19th century. All of these were motivated and animated by evangelicals trying to make the world a better place. What i find unites all these impulses were on the margins of society, those jesus called the least of these. This is a tradition within american evangelicalism most people dont know about very much. In the 19th century it was a robust tradition and did serve to rehabilitate and reform American Society in remarkable ways particularly in the antebellum period and 20th century with people like Williams Jennings bryant, who made three times failed for president and organized issues of this sort in the early part of the 20th century. These people gathering in chicago in november of 1973 actually are trying to rehabilitate this tradition of progressive evangelicalism which had kind of fallen away for historical reasons id be happy to get into later but dont want to spend dealing with that right now. This document contains statements about militarism, about the yawning gap between rich and poor in American Society. The scandal people went to bad hungry anywhere in the world. Equal rights for women, which again in the early 1970s was something of a radical idea, at least among many religious folks. Also the lingering scourge of racism. They sought to address these sorts of things. Thats one event that took place in november, 1973. Less than six months later, in athens, georgia, i dont know if im pointing in the right direction, somewhere around here. Thank you. Athens, georgia there was an event at the university of Georgia Law School called law day. Law day is a rather venerable tradition at the university of Georgia Law School. The law school invites dignitaries Like Supreme Court justices and attorneys general and senators and various venble people to address them at law day. The keynote speaker for that event was the senator from massachusetts, edward m. Kennedy. The undercard speaker at that event was the governor of georgia, jimmy carter. In the morning, kennedy gives his keynote address, had to do with the impeachment proceedings unfolding at that time against Richard Nixon. Carter then addresses the luncheon gathering. Carter begins by saying there were two very important formative influences on his life in terms of thinkers and theologians. One was neber, he quotes often throughout his life as governor of georgia. He said the sad thing of politics was establish justice in a sinful world and carter quotes that passage very often. He said the second formative influence was the great known theologian, bob dillon, whose song in particular, aint going to work on maggies farm no more according to carter was a revelational song about farmers. He goes on to talk about politics and lobbyists in washington, the deck was stacked against ordinary folks. These people, corporations in particular had money to hire lobbyists very often themselves were appointed to regulatory agencies regulating their own businesses and corporations, and how that was fundamentally unfair. He talked about georgias prison population he had taken a real interest in, when he was governor of georgia and said overwhelmingly the prison population of georgia consisted of those poor and could not afford adequate representation. And those more affluent could buy their way out of the justice still. He wound up by sounding some of the populist themes he was already beginning to rehearse for his potential president ial run in 1976. In the course of his remarks, he noticed a journalist in the audience slipping out. He figured that this journalist, hunter s. Thompson, from Rolling Stone magazine, was simply going out to the parking lot to refresh whatever adult beverage he was consuming that day. But turns out hunter was going to his car to get his tape recorder because he wanted to record something extraordinary, a politician who later dared to tell the truth. He later called it a bastard of a speech the best he ever heard from a politician willing to take on powerful interests and willing to speak the truth. Within that six month period you have a remarkable jux position, ideology between the college of social concern and a lot of themes college sounded at his law day 1974. The month before and steve keeps correcting me on this, i want to get it right, the month before, the Gallup Organization conducted a poll of interests of candidates on the part of the