Newswise — As former President Jimmy Carter receives hospice care, the 39th president should be remembered for his emphasis on human rights in American foreign policy and his work on energy conservation and sustainability. Those signature initiatives show Carter was ahead of his time during his presidency, says Johns Hopkins University political scientist Robert Lieberman, whose expertise is American politics.

“Jimmy Carter is the greatest ex-president in American history - not just in terms of longevity but because his stature and popularity as a public figure grew, enormously and deservedly, in the decades after he left office,” said Lieberman. “After his defeat, he pursued neither lucrative celebrity nor quiet retirement but he continued to advance causes that promote human wellbeing around the world.”

Lieberman is the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University.