Working in the World

Strong reveals a president at once deeply engaged in the details of policy, strongly committed to certain views, and willing to take political risks. Above all, Strong’s excellent work gives us a sense of the great complexity and challenge of conducting American foreign policy. ~Lee Hamilton, former chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee

Strong gives Carter much belated due for his personal leadership and spikes some of the simplistic generalizations favored by the mass media that portrayed Carter as indecisive and vacillating. ~Zbigniew Brzezinski, Center for Strategic & International Studies

In this excellent revisionist study, Strong argues that Carter was a more skillful foreign policy practitioner as president than the pundits would have us believe. He showcases Carter’s ‘hands-on’ style in dealing with Panama and the Middle East, the human rights debate, and arms control issues. An important and insightful new contribution to cold war historiography. ~Douglas Brinkley