Jimmy Carter: Elected President with Pocket Change and Peanuts

by Dorothy Padgett

How does a peanut farmer become Governor of Georgia and President of the United States? Only in America could such a story be true. As a small child, Jimmy Carter set his sights on the United States Naval Academy. After graduation in 1946, he married Rosalynn Smith, and six years later, Carter followed the brilliant Captain Hyman G. Rickover into the uncharted waters of the Navy's nuclear submarine program. When Carter left the Navy, he returned with his young family to the fields of the family farm in Plains, Georgia. Not satisfied with the climate of injustice he witnessed in his daily life, Carter sought a political career and was elected state senator in 1962 and again in 1964. He successfully won the 1970 campaign for Governor of Georgia. In 1975, Carter announced he would run for President. Under the new Federal Election Laws only $21.8 million would be provided for the General Election Campaign. A trivial amount compared to future campaigns. An army of loyal supporters, friends, neighbors, and elected officials, known as the Peanut Brigade, joined the campaign. They traveled across the country, joining Jimmy and Rosalynn, knocking on doors, standing at factory gates, walking streets, asking voters to vote for Jimmy Carter for President. In 1976, Carter was elected the 39th President of the United States and served one term. Since leaving office, Carter has not stopped working on behalf of not just Americans, but for people worldwide. While the basics of his story are well known, they have never been told from the perspective of a "soldier" in the Peanut Brigade. Dorothy Padgett, with an earthy, honest, and Southern voice, tells the story as if new to all of us. Humor and insight abound in this direct telling of how a peanut farmer from Georgia became President and leader of the United States. The secret is in his character, his morality, and in his being truly human.

530 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2016

Reviews

[John E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dot Padgett has written a very personal story about Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. Though politics, policy and governance are included, the main focus and the great value of this book arises from Padgett's longtime friendship with the Carters and the stories she is able to tell of the years before his being elected President. Beginning with Carter's childhood in Plains in rural southwest Georgia, continuing through the ears at the U.S. Naval Academy, the return to farming in Plains, service in the Georgia legislature and his tenure a Governor of Georgia, this book has the inside story. But how he was elected President with pocket change and peanuts is the real story, and one with which Padgett is intimately familiar. She organized and led the Peanut Brigade, made up of Georgians who knew Carter personally and who travelled to other states to campaign on his behalf. This proved to be an innovative path to victory. The account of all of this is no doubt a friendly one, but one from which we get to know Jimmy Carter the man. As Carter himself says in the Forward to the book, she tells many stories about him that have never been published before.
John Girardeau

[Ricardo Fernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jimmy Carter: Elected President with Pocket Change and Peanuts, is an enjoyable book that is written with wonderful humor and delightful stories. I found reading this book insightful and an absolute pleasure to read. Dot does a wonderful job guiding the reader through historical moments with southern charm.

[Susan C · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading about Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign, but it is so poorly written that I had to abandon it after two chapters. Life is too short to spend time reading such a poorly written book.

[Michael Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book by a wonderful author and human being, about a true Southern icon. Fabulous/