James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician, philanthropist, and former farmer who serves as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981.

A member of the Democratic Party, he previously serves as a Georgia State Senator from 1963 to 1967 and as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975.

Since leaving the presidency, Carter has remained active in the private sector; in 2002, he is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the Carter Center.

Raised in Plains, Georgia, Carter graduates from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree and joins the United States Navy, where he serves on submarines.

After the death of his father in 1953, Carter leaves his naval career and returns home to Georgia to take up the reins of his family's peanut-growing business.

Carter inherits comparatively little due to his father's forgiveness of debts and the division of the estate among the children.

Nevertheless, his ambition to expand and grow the Carters' peanut business is fulfilled.

During this period, Carter is motivated to oppose the political climate of racial segregation and support the growing civil rights movement.

He becomes an activist within the Democratic Party.

From 1963 to 1967, Carter serves in the Georgia State Senate, and in 1970, he is elected as Governor of Georgia, defeating former Governor Carl Sanders in the Democratic primary on an anti-segregation platform advocating affirmative action for ethnic minorities.

Carter remains as governor until 1975.

Despite being a dark-horse candidate who is little known outside of Georgia at the start of the campaign, Carter wins the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination.

In the general election, Carter runs as an outsider and narrowly defeats incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford.

On his second day in office, Carter pardons all the Vietnam War draft evaders by issuing Proclamation 4483.

During Carter's term as president, two new cabinet-level departments, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, are established.

He establishes a national energy policy that includes conservation, price control, and new technology.

In foreign affairs, Carter pursues the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), and the return of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama.

On the economic front, he confronts persistent stagflation, a combination of high inflation, high unemployment and slow growth.

The end of his presidential tenure is marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

In response to the invasion, Carter escalates the Cold War when he ends détente, imposes a grain embargo against the Soviets, enunciates the Carter Doctrine, and leads a 1980 Summer Olympics boycott in Moscow

In 1980, Carter faces a challenge from Senator Ted Kennedy in the primaries, but he wins re-nomination at the 1980 Democratic National Convention.

Carter loses the general election to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan in an electoral landslide.

Polls of historians and political scientists usually rank Carter as a below-average president; he often receives more positive evaluations for his post-presidential work.

In 1982, Carter establishes the Carter Center to promote and expand human rights.

He has traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, monitor elections, and advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations.

Carter is considered a key figure in the Habitat for Humanity charity.

He has written over thirty books ranging from political memoirs to poetry while continuing to actively comment on ongoing American and global affairs, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The earliest-serving of the five living U.S. presidents, Carter is the longest-lived president, the longest-retired president, the first to live forty years after their inauguration, and the first to reach the age of ninety-five.