At a critical moment in Jimmy Carter’s presidency, he gave a speech that should have changed the country, instead it led to his downfall and ushered in the rise of the Conservative movement in America. What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President? Jimmy Carter, America’s “Malaise,” and the Speech That Should Have Changed the Country provides a behind-the-scenes look at the weeks leading up to the speech, a period of great upheaval in the U.S.: the energy crisis had generated mile-long gas lines, inciting suburban riots and violence, the country's morale was low and Carter’s ratings were even lower. The administration, wracked by its own crises, was in constant turmoil and conflict. What came of their great internal struggle, which Mattson conveys with the excitement of a political thriller, was a speech that deserves a place alongside Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” or FDR’s First Inaugural.
 
Published by Bloomsbury