Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt, at 42 the youngest person ever to become president, took office on McKinley's assassination in 1901 and transformed the office into a bully pulpit for reform.

He pursued a 'Square Deal' for ordinary Americans, breaking up monopolies as a 'trust-buster,' regulating railroads, and signing landmark food-and-drug safety laws. A pioneering conservationist, he protected some 230 million acres of public land. Abroad he began the Panama Canal and won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War, projecting American power onto the world stage.

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