Our resident humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson reflects on former President Jimmy Carter's Malaise speech. Seared in America’s collective memory, even pilloried in popular culture, the speech was delivered 44 years ago. It was both earnest and tone deaf. The then president made the deliberate choice to tell the American people the truth, rather than the time-honored tradition of singing the Song of America.

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Additional audio courtesy of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, C-SPAN2 and YouTube.