Jimmy Carter Books

I was born in 1924 in Plains, Georgia, a town that barely counted a thousand souls. My earliest memories are steeped in red clay, long summer days, and the hard but honest rhythm of farm work. Ours was a modest home—no electricity or running water in the early days—but rich in family love and in the...

From A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety

My time at the Naval Academy in Annapolis was both exhilarating and formative. I arrived in 1943, a young man eager to serve but untested. Wartime brought urgency to everything—we were not training for theoretical purposes but for a world already engulfed in conflict. The Academy’s rigor was unforgi...

From A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety

I was born in 1924 in Plains, Georgia, and raised a few miles outside of town in Archery, a tiny community surrounded by farms and woodlands. My father, Earl Carter, was a strict but fair man, a businessman of remarkable discipline who believed that every child ought to pull his share. From him I le...

From An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood

The farm was both our livelihood and our way of life. We grew corn, cotton, and most notably, peanuts. Every chore had its rhythm. Dawn came early; my father would rouse us before the sky turned gray, reminding me that 'an hour before daylight' was when real work began. That phrase would stay with m...

From An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood