Exploring the Complex Legacy of a Historical Figure

On President Jimmy Carter's responsibility for neoliberalism.

[Patreon Exclusive]

Writer and historian Tim Barker talks to Alex Hochuli and contributing editor Alex Gourevitch about the former president's life and legacy.

• What do people get wrong about Carter? Was Carter, not Reagan, the start of neoliberalism?

• How is Carter's much-admired 'decency' of a piece with his neoliberalism?

• What is 'austerity' and how does it relate to questions of public and private, vice and virtue?

• What was the alternative to the neoliberal pivot in the late 1970s?

• How did the appointment of Fed chairman Volcker change the entire world?

• Did Carter set the script for the Democrats, of being 'noble losers' (but actually on the side of the winners)?

Links:

• Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024, Tim Barker, Origins of Our Time

• Weapons of the Week newsletter

• On neoliberalism and the Cold War: /276/ Broken Promises ft. Fritz Bartel

  Other biographical/obituary episodes:

• Silvio Berlusconi: An Oral History

• /293/ Goodbye 20th Century (RIP Gorby)

• /410/ Reading Club: Deutscher's Stalin

• /435/ Reading Club: Stalin's General – Winning WWII