Jimmy Carter in Africa

Race and the Cold War

Nancy Mitchell

 

Synopsis

In the mid-1970s, the Cold War had frozen into a nuclear stalemate in Europe and retreated from the headlines in Asia. As Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter fought for the presidency in late 1976, the superpower struggle overseas seemed to take a backseat to more contentious domestic issues of race relations and rising unemployment. Jimmy Carter in Africa presents a stark portrait of how deeply Cold War politics and racial justice were intertwined.

Review

The volume's arguments and overall importance can not only change our views of Jimmy Carter's foreign policies and the domestic and foreign pressures he overcame to formulate those policies, but also force us to rethink critical parts of US relations with Africa amidst the historic racial and civil rights events of the 1970s.— Walter LaFeber, Cornell University

Author

Nancy Mitchell is Professor of History at North Carolina State University and a renowned scholar on the presidency of Jimmy Carter.