"We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes-and we must." -Jimmy Carter

James Earl Carter Jr. came from a background of farming and military service to forge an unlikely political career, first as governor of Georgia, and then as the 39th president of the United States.

The interviews collected here-four of them never published in book form before-span the arc of Carter's long career as a politician, a public servant, and a citizen diplomat. They range from an early joust with conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. to his final interview, a moving joint conversation with his wife Rosalynn on the occasion of their 75th wedding anniversary … and, of course, it includes the notorious 1976 Playboy interview wherein Carter remarked that he had "committed adultery in my heart many times."

The result is a fascinating look into the mind and soul of one of our most admirable and principled presidents ever.