Theodore Roosevelt — 26th President (1901–1909)

**Theodore Roosevelt** is the most energetic force ever to occupy the White House. He was a cowboy, a police commissioner, a war hero, a naturalist, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, an author of 35 books, and the president who busted trusts, built the Panama Canal, created the National Park System, and fundamentally expanded the power of the presidency. He became president at 42 after McKinley's assassination and immediately began using executive power with a vigor that shocked his own party.