As mourners around the world remembered Jimmy Carter as a global humanitarian and a visionary on issues like climate change and human rights, historians began framing the life and legacy of the 39th president who died on Dec. 29 at age 100.
A Nobel Prize winner, Carter was hailed for his integrity and a post-presidency highlighted by philanthropic campaigns. At the same time, experts recalled his time in the White House as a balancing act between towering accomplishments and moments of profound national crisis—from brokering a landmark peace accord in the Middle East to presiding over an anguished hostage standoff with Iran.
“When you evaluate a president, you’ve got to look at the whole picture and the historical perspective,” said Michael Goff, a George Washington University adjunct professor of political science and president and CEO of the nonprofit Northeast-Midwest Institute. “Carter had two of legs of the stool, so to speak. He had high character and insightful policy positions. But he didn’t always have the skill and the political connectedness you need to succeed.”
The longest living president in American history, Carter spoke to the GW community in 2007 at Lisner Auditorium on the release of his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” one of the more than 30 works of history, political science and poetry he published in his lifetime. He signed the George Washington University Restatement Act of 1977 and wrote a congratulatory letter to the university for its 2021 Bicentennial celebration. Carter’s son Jeffrey received a B.A. in geography from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) in 1978.
A self-described peanut farmer from tiny Plains, Georgia, Carter shocked the political establishment by claiming the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 after just a single term as governor. Carter’s campaign pledge to never tell a lie was “especially resonant,” said Assistant Professor of History Timothy Shenk, to a country reeling from the disillusionment of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.
Even today, Shenk said, students in his classes “uniformly have an impression of him as a very decent, honest person, which I think is the absolute right perspective—at least, when you compare him to other politicians.”
Carter’s signature accomplishment in office was personally negotiating the 1978 Camp David Accords, a historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt that remains the foundation of Middle East relations. Under his leadership, the U.S. signed an arms control agreement with the Soviet Union, normalized relations with China and relinquished control of the Panama Canal after nearly 80 years.
As a Washington outsider, Carter often struggled to garner consensus even among his own party. But many of Carter’s policy initiatives look “prescient” by today’s standard, Goff said. In addition to making human rights a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy, he was among the first lawmakers to address the dangers of climate change and warn about the country’s reliance on fossil fuels. His administration created the Department of Energy and launched early solar energy research. He even installed solar panels at the White House—which were removed when his successor Ronald Reagan took office.
“If Congress had listened to [Carter], if successors had followed in the same path, we would not have the scale of a climate crisis that we have today,” said Goff, who has taught CCAS courses on the American presidency. “Imagine: The existential policy crisis, economic crisis and health crisis of our time—and it would be significantly less of a crisis today if we had just listened to President Jimmy Carter.”
Carter’s presidency was marred by a sour economy and an energy crisis that cast what became known as a “malaise” over the nation. Critics said Carter often looked like a weak and ineffectual chief executive—particularly in 1979 when Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Although all of the hostages eventually returned home, the prolonged standoff contributed to Carter’s decisive defeat to Reagan in the 1980 presidential election.
After leaving the White House, Carter became renowned for his humanitarian efforts. Alongside his wife Rosalynn, who died in 2023, Carter built houses for the poor, combatted Guinea worm in Africa and promoted human rights by monitoring elections and mediating conflicts around the world. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
“In terms of the diplomatic and international work that would define his post-presidency, it’s fair to say he had much more success after leaving the White House than he did inside of it,” Shenk said.
Indeed, while Carter’s charitable works largely dominate his historical legacy, Goff also believes that his farsighted policies will lead to a reappraisal of his presidency. “History will be much kinder to him,” he said. “If his positions had prevailed, the world would be a better place today.”