Hellhounds on the Campaign Trail: Region, Religion, and Manhood in Jimmy Carter’s Race for the White House

What is it about?

This chapter analyzes Jimmy Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign as a telling prelude to his presidency. Carter’s parents had a forceful influence on his personality. Masculinity, regional identity, and religion made the Carter campaign a very distinctive phenomenon with a highly personalistic nature. However, the "good old boy" club that was the basis for Carter’s successful bid for the White House eventually undid his presidency. After victory, latent feelings of regional inferiority, in combination with religious zeal and an obsession with control, rose to the surface and handicapped the Carter administration.

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