Rating: 
Summary: From whence he came
Review: I enjoyed this book tremendously. I am always fascinated to learn of the humble beginnings to peoples lives. Especially those whove made a difference in our world. While I doubt he will ever be remembered as a great President, he will always be thought of as a great man.
His childhood days come to life in this story of his youth. He looks back on those people whose lives touched his. Whether in a positive or a negative way, Mr. Carter always seemed to be able to learn from his experiences and find the best in people. This story expresses that more than anything else.
Rating: 
Summary: a detailed and affectionate memoir
Review: Jimmy Carter, one of our most under-rated Presidents, here brings his formidable intelligence and his shining integrity to bear upon a wonderful memoir of his early years. His account will grip your interest from the first page. His boyhood in rural Georgia will surprise some readers with its primitive living (no electricity in the early years), and its very hard work. Carter's description of the complexity and self-suffiency of life on the farm is among the best I have read.
You will discover that his mother, who became the nation's "Miz Lillian", was unconventional in ways beyond her fair-minded attitude toward blacks. She insisted upon a life of her own and was independent in ways that were highly unusual for that place and time. His father, Earl, was more conventional outwardly, observing what was then southern propriety, yet he also had enlightened attitudes toward blacks, as well as in other areas. Carter is frank in describing his family's history on both sides, which is full of eccentricity. You may react as I did--"What a rich life!" As viewed through the eyes of the child Jimmy, who was very bright, sensitive, eager to please and hard-working, here is southern life depicted with its miserable aspects (disease, poor nutrition, snakes, bugs) and its great joys (Shetland riding ponies, hunting dogs, feasting at butchering time, socializing at Sunday school "proms"). As detailed as a great novel, this book will enrich your life. Jimmy identifies the five people, other than his family, who had the most influence on his life. Not surprising, only two are white. Rosalynn and Jimmy now make their home in Plains, where they enjoy life-long friendships with the people they never really left behind, throughout their successful lives and their rise to the highest pinnacle of power in this country. Jimmy remains true to the values he learned as a youngster. Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Gather around the fire and listen to Uncle Carter relate
Review: "An Hour Before Daylight" is a fascinating view into the upbringing of one of America's most unlikely Presidents. Growing up in the rural south (is that an oxymoron for the 1930's south?) is about as far
removed from the beltway as anyplace I can imagine. Carter presents to the reader that the values that he took to the presidency he acquired while growing up in a farm in central Georgia - mainly: hard work, personal responsibility, and an appreciation of diversity. Yet, while the story itself is intriguing, the presentation is somewhat lacking. The book is repetative and the dialog is somewhat stilted. Carter makes the same points over and over and retells some of the same stories. One has the sense that Uncle Carter is telling us youngin's how it really was in them olden days while at the same time obviously pining for a time when the world seemed simpler. Overall,. the tone of this book reminded me a lot of John Grisham's "A Painted House," a novel that I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating story told by a true scholar
Review: In this brief but revealing volume, former US president Jimmy Carter traces his not-quite-hardscrabble rural boyhood in Plains, Georgia. He discusses the strong ties that bound his family together, points to the influence of his stern father and loving mother, and notes that tobacco and cancer cost the lives of several of those closest to him. From his father, Carter acquired a work ethic and an attention to detail that later encumbered his presidency; from his mother, he received lessons in treating all people--both white and black, rich and poor--with respect and dignity. Poignant moments arise when Carter recounts friendships with African American residents in the community where he was raised. But repeatedly, he unflinchingly acknowledges that Jim Crow strictures, such as those involving railroad cars, movie theaters, or schools, long remained uncontested. In one of the more telling moments, Carter indicates that a point arrived when it became clear that lifelong friendships would be altered due to racial considerations. Carter's horizons broadened as he attended the US Naval Academy and lived outside his native South for several years. Recommended for general readers.
Rating:
Summary: Informative and Interesting
Review: I groaned when my Lit. Professor assigned this, but ended up truly enjoying it. Jimmy Carter's "voice" is a little dry at times, but still, his experiences are very engaging. I was touched by his past and by the kindess within his heart. Recommend even for recreational reading.
Rating:
Summary: A Labor of Love
Review: Jimmy Carter's memoir of his childhood in depression-era rural Georgia is refreshingly free of self-serving embellishments and opportunistic dramatizations. As his parents' eldest child and (until his teen-age years) only son, he had to pull his weight in every sector of farm work. His intimate knowledge of life in the rural South after Reconstruction and before the Civil Rights Movement makes this book an important document. He describes the sharecropper system in a segregated society, the (often unanticipated) effects of government farm policies on the local community, the rigidity of race relations, the resourcefulness and enterprise of farmers like his father, who constantly experimented with new crops and new methods to make ends meet, at a time when few labor-saving devices were available.
His own playmates were mostly black, and he was on easy neighborly terms with the black tenant farmers. He does not conceal his father's strict segregationist stance, nor does he deny his own unquestioning acceptance of it.
Deeply rooted in the land to which he returned after completion of his Navy training and again after serving as the 39th President of the United States, he combines an anthropologist's passion for detail with the pride of a youngster entrusted with a man's responsibilities. Only someone who has worked the land himself can appreciate the extraordinary sense of accomplishment a young boy feels when he has ploughed his first straight furrow.
While by current standards his early childhood might be considered harsh, his loving description of it never admits resentment of any kind. Occasionally, he lets slip that he was not always the Goody Two Shoes he sometimes appeared to be; weaknesses and mistakes are frankly acknowledged.
His family had its share of eccentrics and misfits. Delving into the past, he researched records of his ancestors who were pre-revolutionary settlers in Georgia and fought in the War of Independence as well as in the Civil War. Projecting forward to the time when his black friends were able to vote, Carter gives us a sense of the tremendous changes that have taken place in the South during his lifetime. His awareness of and participation in these changes make this memoir a piece of History.
Rating:
Summary: Learn about the rural south in the early 20th century
Review: Former President Jimmy Carter is one of the people who truly drove the South to change from the deeply entrenched segregated society. He grew up taking segregation as a fact of life, ignoring the inconsistencies and absurdities. Leaving his rural roots to be educated at the naval academy, he came back to be a leader in the desegregation movement. Much has been made about the role of the Northern whites, whether they be federal officials or civil rights workers. However, it was people like Carter with the courage and foresight to understand the necessity who truly made it happen.
While Carter describes the segregated society of his boyhood in great detail, this is not a story about a great awakening to push for equality. The main theme is his family life before he went to college and how hard his and all other families worked. Southern society was generally a poor one and most families, including many who were white, struggled to survive. Given the tremendous changes that economic development has made in the South, it is easy to ridicule sharecropping as an extension of slavery. Such a position shows an ignorance of history. As Carter describes in great detail, there were few other options available and many people had no choice.
I remember seeing his mother, Miss Lillian on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. I was impressed with her then and am even more so now. In many ways she was a pioneer in her treatment of blacks and Carter is very poignant in describing that his father's only alternative was to pretend it was not happening.
Jimmy Carter's presidency is generally rated as somewhere in the high mediocre. This was not due to a lack of character or absence of work ethic. He worked hard as a boy and that continued into his adulthood. If you want to learn about his youth or what it like was like in the rural south in the early twentieth century, then you should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: I received it as a Christmas gift, and I could not put it down. It doesn't matter that it is by Jimmy Carter although that is what will make people pick it up at the bookstore. It's really a great history book about rural Southern farmer families from the early part of the last century from a personal point of view. My parents are probably about the age of his children so I don't relate at all to the story from my relatives lives except that I do relate because of the way that he writes. It is as if we are hearing someone tell a story to us personally. I've recommended it to my friends and coworkers. I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: An intimate and entralling read. Loved the photos. My parents grew up in the 1930s and President Carter's experiences rung a lot of bells with us. This is the way it was for so many people in the Great Depression. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: A great man revealed through his own words
Review: The single most refreshing characteristic of this set of autobiographical sketches - and this book is full of refreshing elements - is that it is in no sense an apologia for President Carter's term in the White House. For anyone who has assumed the enormous responsibilities of that office, the tendency must be great to offer reasons for his perceived sins of commission and omission, and what better place than in a book of reminiscences about his roots? Rather, President Carter, in admirably smooth and flowing prose, paints a detailed picture of the people, events, and place that influenced his early years in Archery, GA., touching upon his father's rather conservative views (it came as a surprise to learn that the elder Mr. Carter, a Democrat and farmer during the Great Depression, was not a dyed in the wool New Deal Democrat), his mother's more liberal outlook, daily life in 1930's rural GA, his relationship with the black people of his community, and much more. For a Southerner, there is a familiar ring to the cadence of Carter's prose; for many it will conjure memories of the summer night conversations with grandparents that followed the request, "tell me about the olden days." For any reader, this is a revealing look at the influences on the boy who became the father of the man. Perhaps it was a trick of fate, or history, but many Americans learned to appreciate President Carter's special gifts and personal goodness after he left the White House, through his work as an American ambassador at large, a diligent worker for distressed people of the world, and a hands-on leader and participant in Habitat for Humanity. This book reinforces that appreciation and it helps explain how and where this great man developed the principled determination that has earned him such well-deserved admiration.
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