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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 306.0973090511 EAN: 9780743285018 ISBN: 0743285018 Label: Simon & Schuster Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 224 Publication Date: September 26, 2006 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Studio: Simon & Schuster Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Even at his most irate, Jimmy Carter projects cool, communicating with a poise that commands attention while gently signaling to opponents that they better do their homework before mounting any sort of debate. Perhaps that's why the former president, Nobel Peace Prize-winner, and bestselling author ranks as one of the planet's most respected voices in the areas of human rights, diplomacy, and good government. And when a clearly agitated Carter suggests America is on a slippery slope, globally speaking, as he does throughout Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, it's wise to pay heed even if the book's overriding Christian perspective may trip cautionary bells in secular readers. More a set of loosely connected essays than a single, precise argument, Our Endangered Values outlines Carter's worldview while pondering what he posits are key problems looming in the 21st century. Thematic touchstones such as the war, environmental negligence, civil liberties, the rich-poor divide, and the separation of church and state form the book's backbone, with Carter filtering each through the prism of his own vast experience. He doesn't much like what he sees. Though much of the data Carter presents to support his arguments is familiar, it's worth repeating that "the rate of firearm homicides in the United States is nineteen times higher than that of 35 other high-income countries combined." That "In addition to imprisonment, the United States of America stands almost alone in the world in our fascination with the death penalty, and our few remaining companions are regimes with a lack of respect for basic human rights." That when it comes to sharing the wealth with poor nations "Americans are the stingiest of all industrialized nations. We allow about one-thirtieth as much as is commonly believed [or] sixteen cents out of each $100 of the gross national income." America: land of the free, home of the brave? Try global bully with a bad attitude and reckless sense of entitlement. Carter spends significant time contextualizing his own spirituality, as if to underscore the urgency of his message that fundamentalism in any form is bad, especially when it encroaches on government. Indeed, Carter persuasively links fundamentalism to harmful policy, the subjugation of women, general xenophobia, and a host of other ills occurring all around him. And while George W. Bush in particular and the current administration in general take fewer clips on the chin than might be expected, Carter's arguments for common-sense change are deeply resonant nonetheless. --Kim Hughes Product Description: President Jimmy Carter offers a passionate defense of separation of church and state. He warns that fundamentalists are deliberately blurring the lines between politics and religion. As a believing Christian, Carter takes on issues that are under fierce debate -- women's rights, terrorism, homosexuality, civil liberties, abortion, the death penalty, science and religion, environmental degradation, nuclear arsenals, preemptive war, and America's global image. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A Respected Christian Gives our Nation a Much Needed WarningIn this very readable, wide-ranging and meaty book, Ex-President Jimmy Carter, ruminates, and worries about the erosion of American values as the erosion continue to sink the nation into the quick sand of arrogant, corrupt, mean-spirited, short-sighted and politically motivated partisan leadership as practiced by both the present conservative government and current fundamentalist's Church leaders. Taking on his own Baptist church and the Bush administration as the first and most obvious ... Read More Rating:  - Right Idea - Wrong TitleFormer President Carter has written down his thoughts about our current administration. Essentially, America has become a global bully. The big, muscular high school jock who beats up on others or threatens to do so, and then, like President Bush, says, "Bring it on." Perhaps the current administration is somewhat justified in breaking any treaty or agreement in hunting down an enemy that can never be reasoned with, that can never be negotiated with and that usually does not wear a uniform. ... Read More Rating: - Not What You ThinkA frequent comment made in many reviews (all excellent, it seems to me) is, "It's not what you think." I have great regard for Jimmy Carter, but the book's title "put me off." Finally, however, with the frequency with which the reviews praised it, I thought that I must give it a try. And surprise: "It's Not What You Think." Do read it; you'll be pleasantly surprised. Rating: - Timely ObservationsThoughts of a deeply religious man, who was a former Naval Officer and who also bore the burdens of our nation's highest office. Simple truths, well spoken. Rating: - A great man, a slightly disappointing bookIt's been a long time since I started and finished a book in one night - and I never expected former president Jimmy Carter's book to be such a fast read. The more I find out about this man, the more I admire him. I was only 6 when he became president - and I knew three things about him. He was a former farmer, he had a brother named Billy and (later) he was the president during the Iran hostage crisis. Since I've gotten older and since he's gone on to do many admirable things ... Read More |
