evidence: Anyone who's even vaguely familiar with Jimmy Carter has heard the assessment of his career that's become something of a political cliché: His presidency was largely a failure, but he's the best ex-president the country's ever had. [...] Alter paints a vivid picture of Carter's childhood in rural Georgia, where he grew up the son of a freethinking mother and a father who "was comfortable upholding a system of rigid segregation and quiet repression." He follows Carter to Annapolis, where he was an accomplished midshipman who became a competent, if ambivalent, sailor — while serving aboard the USS Mississippi, he hung a banner that read "Who Cares?" above his bunk. [...] Carter's election as president was marked by a series of unforced errors that nearly cost him the race, including his now-famous Playboy interview in which he admitted, inexplicably, "I have looked on a lot of women with lust; I've committed adultery in my heart many times." He also said he wouldn't force neighborhoods to be racially integrated, noting — again, inexplicably — "I see nothing wrong with ethnic purity being maintained."