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'What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?'
Kevin Mattson
Jimmy Carter, America's 'Malaise,' and the Speech that Should Have Changed the Country
Bloomsbury Press
July 2009
On Sale: June 23, 2009
272 pages
ISBN: 1596915218
EAN: 9781596915213
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
In 1979, in an effort to right our national malaise, Jimmy
Carter delivered a speech that risked his reputation and the
future of the Democratic Party, changing the course of
American politics for the next twenty-five years. At a critical moment in Jimmy Carter’s presidency, he gave a
speech that should have changed the country. Instead it led
to his downfall and ushered in the rise of the conservative
movement in America. In “What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr.
President?†Kevin Mattson gives us a behind-the-scenes look
at the weeks leading up to Carter’s “malaise†speech, a
period of great upheaval in the United States: the energy
crisis had resulted in mile-long gas lines, inciting
suburban riots and violence; the country’s morale was low
and Carter’s ratings were even lower. The administration,
wracked by its own crises, was in constant turmoil and
conflict. What came of their great internal struggle, which
Mattson conveys with the excitement of a political thriller,
was a speech that deserves a place alongside L incoln’s
Gettysburg Address or FDR’s First Inaugural. Prominent
politicians on both sides of the aisle play important roles,
including Carter, Vice President Walter Mondale,
speechwriter Hendrik Hertzberg, Ronald Reagan, and Ted
Kennedy. Like the best of narrative political writing,
Mattson provides great insight into the workings of the
Carter White House and the moral crisis that ushered in a
new, conservative America.
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