Jimmy Carter 1924 -2024

The 39th president was a Renaissance man whoshould be hailed for his environment policy and his work for peace

- By Jonathan Alter

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States and a Nobel peace prize-winning humanitarian, died in Plains, fobel peace p Georgia, the tiny town where he and his formidable wife and life partner, Rosalynn, were born.

Carter the longest-lived and longest-married US president - is unlikely to be placed in the first rank of American leaders, but his single four-year term is now seen in a much better light than it was when he was best known for the seizure of American hostages in Iran and for his crushing loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

The easy shorthand on Carter inept president but superb former president - is a major oversimplification. In office, Carter was a political failure but a policy success, with a string of unheralded accomplishments and a partially fulfilled vision of peace and a clean energy future. He was an austere, moral leader who didn't like to think of himself as a politician.

With skills ranging from agronomist, nuclear engineer and technologist to poet, painter and master woodworker, Carter was the first president since Thomas Jefferson who could be considered a Renaissance man.

He was also the first since Jefferson under whom no blood was shed in war.