Kai Birdis an award-winning historian and journalist. Executive director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography, he is the acclaimed author of biographies of John J. McCloy, of McGeorge and William Bundy, Robert Ames, and President Jimmy Carter. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for American Prometheus- The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (co-authored with Martin J. Sherwin), which was adapted into the Academy Award-winning film Oppenheimer. His work has been honored with the BIO Award for his significant contributions to the art and craft of biography. He has also written about the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the CIA. He lives in New York City and Washington, D.C., with his wife, Susan Goldmark.
“An ‘outlier’ among politicians, Carter shows what democratic
politics could be, if the power-hungry, dishonest figures would
just get out of the way. Bird’s book offers a rich and
compelling account of Carter’s sincere efforts to make
American policies match the nation’s ideals.”—The Washington
Post
“In Kai Bird’s latest masterpiece, a book that models the virtues
of the biographer’s craft, Jimmy Carter receives his due. Deeply
empirical and exquisitely sculpted, The Outlier . . . is a
landmark. . . . Bird’s treatment gives Carter’s presidency the deep
analysis it deserves.” —Foreign Policy
“Bird’s nuanced study not only sets the record straight on Carter’s
misunderstood presidency, it brings him to life in a way that few
other biographers have been able to thus far.”—Variety
“A bracing reminder that the 39th president was a man of probity,
decency, high hopes, and high moral standards . . . Bird’s take on
whom he calls ‘our most enigmatic president’ is relentlessly
fair-minded. [The Outlier] redeems [Carter’s] presidency and
reminds us of how callous we might have been during his years in
office.” —The Boston Globe
“This is superior history, superbly researched and marvelously
written.”—Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author of
American Moonshot
“This beautifully written book will take its place alongside other
superb one-volume biographies of American presidents. The Outlier
will raise readers’ estimates of Jimmy Carter’s term in
office.”—Robert Dallek, New York Times bestselling author of
Franklin D. Roosevelt and An Unfinished Life
“A grand work of revisionist history, prodigiously researched and
gracefully written, The Outlier tells the story of a singular man
and a unique presidency at a critical point in American and world
history.”—David Nasaw, New York Times bestselling author of The
Last Million
“Bird tells the story with sympathy, intelligence, and a wealth of
marvelously organized information. The Outlier is a pleasure to
read.”—Vivian Gornick, author of Fierce Attachments
“Books about presidents are often fat and dull—not this one. Bird
has talked to everybody and written a compelling account of the
most underrated president in American history.”—Thomas Powers,
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of The Killing of
Crazy Horse
“Incisive . . . [The Outlier is] the best study to date of the
Carter era and a substantial contribution to the history of
the 1970s.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“. . . a lucid, penetrating portrait that should spur
reconsideration of Carter’s much-maligned presidency.”—Publishers
Weekly
“A readable, masterful biography of a complex leader . .
.”—Booklist (starred review)
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