Ronald Reagan wished us a good morning in America, while Papa Bush foresaw a new world order. Bill Clinton did not have sexual relations with that woman, whereas George W. told his enemies to bring ’em on. Further back, we had nothing to fear but asking not for a Great Society. Trust me—I am not a crook, and I cannot tell a lie.

History seems to remember occupants of the White House as much for their words as for their actions. It's too soon to know which words will define President Obama. “Responsibility”? “Empathy”? "Hope" and "change" echoed through his campaign, but over time will they start feeling a little old, a little yes-we-canned?

Among all the men who've held the office, however, President Jimmy Carter alone may have the distinction of being defined by a word he did not utter. In an extraordinary speech from the Oval Office on July 15, 1979, the 39th president looked straight into a television camera, deep into the nation's psyche, and proclaimed a "crisis of confidence" in America, one "that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will." ... (Read the full review)

Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech—one in which the word malaise does not, curiously enough, appear—was delivered 30 years ago, on July 15, 1979.

Mr. Carter stared into television cameras during prime time and delivered a solemn jeremiad about a “crisis of the American spirit.” He worried aloud that “human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns.”

It was the kind of secular sermon—introspective, searching, occasionally soaring—that can be a tear-jerker when delivered to swelling music on a TV show like The West Wing but works less well for real-world presidents. Mr. Carter’s speechwriters Hendrik Hertzberg and Gordon Stewart were brilliant, but they weren’t Aaron Sorkin. ... (Read the full review)

Malaise is a disease of the spirit, a crippling affliction often marked by lethargy and despair. For the last 30 years, Jimmy Carter has been branded by the word. In the roiling wake of Watergate and Vietnam, confronted by gasoline shortages and an apathetic or distracted citizenry, President Carter infamously described the doldrums consuming the nation as a malaise during his televised address of July 15, 1979. Historian Kevin Mattson begins his new book by calmly citing an inconvenient truth about this defining moment: The word malaise never appeared in Carter's speech. "Our memory of the speech comes from those who reworked it," Mattson writes, "who twisted its words into a blunt instrument that helped them depose a president."

Carter felt compelled to tell people what they didn't want to hear. Mattson recounts the president witnessing block-long gas lines and informing reporters two months before the speech: "I don't want to mislead you. It's going to get worse. What we need is a massive effort at conservation." ... (Read the full review)

Q: Of all the things you could have written about, what drew you to the “malaise” speech, a word Carter never actually uttered in the speech?

A: I was astounded the first time I taught the [history] class, because I walked in expecting the students to say what is the usual interpretation of the speech; that Carter is blaming Americans for all the problems that were really his own. But they had a much more positive reaction. They liked Carter saying to American citizens, “I expect something of you.” They liked the tone. They liked the sense that this guy was actually telling them the truth. And it was that reaction that made me think there’s something really going on here.

Q: I remember watching that speech, and I have a vague remembrance of feeling like I’d just watched a Billy Graham crusade. “You lazy, overindulgent, oil-dependent, vain people: Repent before it’s too late!” But, in a weird way, that was OK.

A: And that’s exactly why it resonated, in an odd way. I think there’s something embedded in the American character, and in America religion specifically, that that actually appeals to. ... (Read the full interview)