Recent Books


An Outsider in the White House: Jimmy Carter, His Advisors, and the Making of US Foreign Policy
Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2009 (forthcoming)              ISBN:

This study shows that an inexperienced president is apt to become too dependent on his advisors and may, under the sway of a hawkish adviser, adopt policies that run counter his own basic objectives. A sense of moral mission, too, can lead to flawed estimations of US power and misestimations of the intentions and capabilities of the adversary.

Contrary to prevailing interpretations of his presidency, Carter did not begin with a "soft" approach to the Soviet Union, only to shift to a harder line after the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. For the first time, the various techniques Brzezinski, the street fighter and Polish-born academic, employed in the battle for Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy soul are documented from original sources.

Recent Chapters





The Clinton Riddle: Perspectives on the Forty-Second President
Editors: Todd G. Shields, Jeannie M. Whayne, and Donald R. Kelley
Lead chapter by Betty Glad
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press, 2004             ISBN: 1557287805

This is a groundbreaking assessment of the most controversial president in modern times. Ten distinguished scholars treat such crucial topics as race, women, and minorities; the character issue; foreign policy; and the media. This book provides a unique vantage point on the "Clinton riddle" that all future studies will need to consider.

To Purchase:  Barnes and Noble





Earlier Books






The Russian Transformation: Political, Sociological and Psychological Aspects
with Eric Shiraev 
Publisher: St. Martins, 1999

Early Comments:
“The first three articles are in many ways the strongest in the book, and the first (by Glad and Shiraev) is one of the best short summaries of the events of the Gorbachev era that I have ever read, drawing on autobiographies, journalism, and others’ analyses to tell its dramatic story.”
             ---Brian Carter, Contemporary Psychology APA Review of Books

“This volume is a carefully constructed and well-written account of the changes that have taken place in the Soviet Union (and then Russia) since Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in 1985. …Their book is … a virtual treasure trove of interesting and relevant information. Such vigorous scholarship should now provide the groundwork for bravely addressing the big unanswered questions about Russia’s evolution.”
            ---Arthur Jay Klinghoffer, Rutgers University Book Reviews

“Glad and Shiraev have pulled together an impressive list of nine writers from both the United States and Russia to give balance, perspective, and insight into Russia’s cultural transformations over the past decade….”
             ---Harry V. Willems, Library Journal

To Purchase:  Barnes and Noble








Psychological Dimensions of War
Publisher: Sage Publications, 1990

“…Glad is to be congratulated on putting together a stimulating and enlightening collection of papers. Not only has she done a skilful job of editing, providing useful commentary on the various sections, but she has also authored or co-authored six of the 19 high-quality chapters. …”
                       
             ---Christopher C. French, LTD. Review, Inc. Book;  Department of Psychology University of London

“…Betty Glad and Charles Taber offer a fascinating psychological critique of the history of the use of the domino theory by the United States in the post-World War II period. Both the explanation and the critiques go well beyond the usual level of discourse on this topic….”

             ---Richard Jackson Harris, Political Psychology

To Purchase:  Barnes and Noble








Key Pittman: The Tragedy of a Senate Insider
Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1986

“…Glad has written studies of Charles Evans Hughes and Jimmy Carter. This work, based on the Pittman papers, is equally well written and fascinating. The early chapters on Pittman’s frontier life could have come out of Rex Beach, and those on the London Economic Conference give credit to a W. C. Fields scenario.”
                 ---Justus D. Doenecke, American Historical Review
   
“Betty Glad has written a distinguished psychobiography about a fascinating, though relatively unknown, figure in American politics. . …”
                           
             ---Stephen G. Walker, Political Psychology

“In short, this clearly written biography offers high-level interdisciplinary insights without flaunting its erudition. It is an excellent work.”
                           
             ---J. Garry Clifford, The Journal of American History

To Purchase:  Barnes and Noble








Jimmy Carter: In Search of the Great White House
Publisher: W. W. Norton, 1980

“There is no way this review can say all there is to be said for and about this book: It is one solid piece of scholarship, reporting, researching, and, for a happy wonder, good writing. Twenty is a lot of bucks, but this is a lot of book.”
                           
             ---Jack Flannery, Boston Globe           
         
“In this painstaking account of Mr. Carter’s life, Betty Glad, …[blends] detailed biography with a prudent dash of psychological speculation. Because Miss Glad has taken the time to go beyond the assertions of Mr. Carter and his own family about the President’s boyhood and early public life, she has produced the most thorough and important profile of this puzzling public man….Miss Glad’s chapter, “Fantasies,”…should be required reading for every political journalist.”

             ---Jeff Greenfield, New York Times Book Review
                         
 “For the first 472 pages she provides a detailed fascinating and readable biography that goes far beyond previous accounts on the life and times of Jimmy Carter.”
                       
             ---Timothy D. Schellhardt, Wall Street Journal

“…No one reading Jimmy Carter: In search of the Great White House will ever again underestimate Carter’s skill and ferocity as a politician, or ever fail to take seriously his capacity to retrieve lost ground.”
             ---Max Lerner, New York Post

“…[Betty Glad] … has pulled together what they found in a thorough, honest and readable narrative of Carter’s years. The first 225 pages of the book, which deal with Carter up till he decided to run for president, are, I believe, the only reliable and detailed account in print anywhere….”

             --- Theo Lippman, JR., The Sun

“The first all-encompassing life of Jimmy Carter, subtle and dispassionate, a brilliant evolutionary explanation of the inevitable and sometimes self-inflicted dilemmas of this ‘good man in politics.’”

              ---Fawn Brodie

Reviewer: Jim Carter "chcarter"  (Valdosta, Ga. United States)
For anyone interested in the man (Carter) before he became President, and the strategies behind his successful rise to the nation's top elected office, this book is quite helpful. Glad makes excellent use of the materials available to her at the time. Also, her inclusion opf references provide ample jumping off points top anyone interested in pursuing either Carter's early political career, or Georgia/southern US politics in the 1960s and 1970s. Glad's writing style is eloquent, informative, and entertaining. An excellent investment for the political historian, or the average reader.

To Purchase:  Barnes and Noble









Charles Evans Hughes and the Illusions of Innocence: A Study in American Diplomacy
Publisher: University of Illinios Press, 1966

“This closely argued and admirably objective volume is not a study in diplomacy but in thinking about foreign policy….”
              ---Richard W. Leopold, Political Science Quarterly

“…She is judicious in her treatment, recognizing the difficulty of fitting a complex and multi-faceted personality like Hughes into any single analytical straightjacket….”
                           
             ---Waldo H. Heinrichs, Jr., The New England Quarterly

To Purchase:  Barnes and Noble