Jimmy Carter — 39th President (1977–1981)

**Jimmy Carter** was the peanut farmer, nuclear engineer, and born-again Christian from Plains, Georgia, who won the presidency as an outsider promising honesty after Watergate. His single term was marked by genuine moral leadership — the Camp David Accords, human rights as foreign policy — alongside economic misery (stagflation, gas lines) and the Iran hostage crisis that destroyed his presidency. His post-presidency, spanning five decades of humanitarian work, may be the most productive in American history.