James Earl Carter Jr. served a single term as the 39th President of the United States, but despite his short tenure, he had the most extensive post-presidential career in American history, lasting from 1981 until his death in 2024.
Carter was a peanut farmer before his presidency and when he took office he placed the family farm into a blind trust. But when he returned he was heavily in debt, so Carter earned an income through writing. He published over 30 books, ranging from memoirs and non-fiction to children’s books and historical novels.
The first major achievement of Carter’s career after the presidency was the founding of The Carter Center in 1982, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting human rights.
The Center will operate a wide range of initiatives around the world, often working with the United Nations. One of its most prominent roles has been election monitoring, which monitored and reported on elections in 40 countries as a neutral organization unaffiliated with the US government.
The Carter Center will also be known for its public health and agricultural assistance programs. These include ongoing efforts to combat river blindness and trachoma in developing countries by distributing medicine and building toilet facilities. The near-eradication of Guinea worm disease in Africa has been a major achievement – the first such eradication without pharmaceuticals.
Carter himself continued to travel extensively to promote diplomatic efforts, both as a private citizen and as an unofficial negotiator for the United States. During the Ronald Reagan administration, he traveled to the Middle East to support the continuation of the Camp David Accords, which his administration brokered between Egypt and Israel, and he met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to advance the peace process. Met with.
Carter helped secure a temporary ceasefire during the Yugoslavian wars and, in 1994, visited North Korea at the request of President Bill Clinton to negotiate a treaty governing nuclear nonproliferation. He later returned to North Korea in 2010 to secure the release of Ejalon Gomes, an American citizen who had entered the country illegally.
Carter was known for his work alongside his wife Rosalynn Habitat for Humanity is an international charity dedicated to building affordable housing for low-income families around the world.
After first volunteering for the organization in 1984, the Carters began an annual work project where they would personally participate with volunteers at a particular construction site. Carter served on the organization’s board from 1984 to 1987.
Carter’s work in human rights and social justice was widely praised and earned him the 1998 United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights, as well as the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, making him the third US President to receive this honor.
However, Carter has also been criticized for alleged anti-Israel bias in his statements and writings on the Middle East and for labeling Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as apartheid in his best-selling controversial book on the subject in 2006. Has been.
Carter was the longest-lived US president, serving from the age of 90 until his death at the age of 100. While his four-year presidency has often been considered mediocre by historians, his post-presidency tenure set a standard that would be difficult to match. cross.