History 479B

Devine

Fall 2012

Bruce Schulman, “Jimmy Carter and the Crisis of Confidence”

1. Why did many Americans initially support Jimmy Carter? How did a Carter presidency promise to be different than what had come before (i.e. Johnson, Nixon)? How did Carter’s approach to the office differ from that of his predecessors’?

2. Carter failed to achieve his goals in the policies of the “three E’s” – energy, environment, and economy. What kept him from achieving his goals? His own shortcomings as a leader? Or forces beyond his control?

3. Why, according to Schulman, was the great inflation of the 1970s “a transformative event?” (p. 131) What changes occurred? Why was inflation such a big deal?

4. How did inflation affect attitudes about credit, spending, and investing? How did it help to produce changes in the way people did their banking?

5. Schulman argues that Americans’ attitude toward government changed during the 1970s. How did this attitude differ from that of the 1960s? How were both Carter and Reagan responsible for the change?

6. The author, Bruce Schulman is sharply critical of Jimmy Carter. Do the facts merit such a harsh judgment? Why do you think Carter proved an ineffective president?