The Encyclopedia of Presidents offers authoritative biographies of each president since 1789, when George Washington was first sworn in. The stories of these key figures and historic events paint a full and lively picture of our nation. Each biography includes color illustrations, a timeline, boxed features on events and people of special interest, and lively text introducing the featured president and the times in which he lived. Georgian Jimmy Carter gave up a promising navy career after his father's death to manage his family's farm in Georgia. In 1970 he was elected governor of Georgia, and in 1976 he was elected president. Carter was devoted to world peace, and his greatest accomplishment was mediating a landmark peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. At home, he struggled with problems of high unemployment and high inflation. In 1977, when revolutionaries in Iran took U.S. embassy workers hostage, Carter failed in efforts to rescue the hostages and was seen as a weak president, in 1980 he lost his campaign for re-election to Republican Ronald Reagan. After leaving the White House, Carter continued his campaigns for world peace and democratic values. He monitored elections around the world, served as a mediator, and personally helped to build homes for poor families in the United States and overseas. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his lifelong efforts to find peaceful solutions to world problems.