When Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) lost the presidency in 1980, it would have been reasonable to think his public life was coming to an end. The moderate, evangelical, blue-jeans-wearing peanut farmer made an unlikely governor of Georgia, and an even less likely winner of the vicious 1976 Democratic presidential nomination. Coming into an era of American politics where evangelical and rural voters became increasingly identified with the Reagan revolution, and the Democratic Party's identity became increasingly secular and urban by attrition, he did not fit neatly into the political categories of the emerging decade. But it was not politics that would define President Carter in the end: it would be his humble Christian faith and his enduring commitment to the poor, to peace, and to human rights. In Conversations with Jimmy Carter, eleven interviews, drawn from Carter's five decades as a national public figure, capture the complexities and contradictions that have defined him-and that have helped to both reflect and shape the highest aspirations of the American experiment.

Six types of execution are practiced in the industrialized world, torture is openly sanctioned by America, and infringements of people's civil liberties occur daily. Yet in 2005 only 61% of the British voting public chose to stand up for their rights. Explaining what civil liberties are and why they're worth defending, Tom Head shows how you can make a difference.

When Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) lost the presidency in 1980, it would have been reasonable to think his public life was coming to an end. The moderate, evangelical, blue-jeans-wearing peanut farmer made an unlikely governor of Georgia, and an even less likely winner of the vicious 1976 Democratic presidential nomination. Coming into an era of American politics where evangelical and rural voters became increasingly identified with the Reagan revolution, and the Democratic Party's identity became increasingly secular and urban by attrition, he did not fit neatly into the political categories of the emerging decade. But it was not politics that would define President Carter in the end: it would be his humble Christian faith and his enduring commitment to the poor, to peace, and to human rights. In Conversations with Jimmy Carter, eleven interviews, drawn from Carter's five decades as a national public figure, capture the complexities and contradictions that have defined him-and that have helped to both reflect and shape the highest aspirations of the American experiment.

Though a well-regarded physicist Carl Sagan (1934-1996) is best-known as a writer of popular nonfiction and science fiction and as the host of the PBS series "Cosmos," Through his writings and spoken commentary, he worked to popularize interests in astronomy, the universe, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. From the beginning of his public career, when he co-wrote "Intelligent Life in the Universe" to the very end as he worked on the 1997 film adaptation of his novel "Contact," these subjects absorbed him.

This interest in space was rooted in his understanding of the smallness and vulnerability of humanity measured against the immense size and power of the universe. This profound philosophical humility, mixed with personal exuberance, comes through in "Conversations with Carl Sagan," In interviews and profiles, Sagan discusses with verve a wide variety of topics--the environment, nuclear disarmament, religion, politics, extraterrestrial life, astronomy, physics, robotics. Whether he is discussing his science fiction or his well-researched nonfiction works, his voice embraces reason and skepticism.

This volume shows how Sagan, a lifelong skeptic, refined his views and expressed amazement that Earth, for all his belief in extraterrestrial life, encompasses everything about which he cared.

Tom Head of Jackson, Mississippi, is a writer and poet whose work includes "Women and Families (Voices from the Civil War)," "Possessions and Exorcisms (Fact or Fiction?)," and "1966 (The Turbulent 60s),"