A year-long hostage crisis led to a presidency that would shape American politics for decades. But how much of what really happened is public?

Let’s imagine that Franklin D. Roosevelt had possessed the same gift for longevity as Jimmy Carter and lived until he was 100. He would have died in1982, in Ronald Reagan’s second year in office.

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.