Jimmy Carter, peacemaker guided by moral vision but laid low by politics

The 39th president was a Renaissance man who should be celebrated for his environment policy and his work for peace

• Jimmy Carter dies aged 100 - latest updates

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States and a Nobel peace prize-winning humanitarian, died on Sunday in Plains, Georgia, the tiny town where he and his formidable wife and life partner, Rosalynn, were born.

Carter - the longest-lived and longest-married US president - is unlikely to be placed in the first rank of American leaders, but his single four-year term is now seen in a much better light than it was when he was best known for the seizure of American hostages in Iran and for his crushing loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980.