Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, will be eulogized at a state funeral Thursday at the National Cathedral and later by private family services and interment in Plains, Georgia.

It is unusual for five current and former presidents to gather at the same event, but when it happens, it is often at a funeral.

Jimmy Carter’s melancholy fate was to be a largely derivative figure: He was a reaction against his elected predecessor and the precursor of his successor. Richard M. Nixon made Carter