T. Roosevelt was a Progressive. The Progressive Era in American history is a significant area of study. He is one of the first Presidents to institute real reform in business, industry and labor. He developed America's national parks and is America's youngest President. He brought renewed vigor and energy into the Presidency that American's really hadn't seen before. He had drive and passion that the beginning of the Twentieth century.

To start ranking presidents is always a somewhat dodgy practice, especially when comparing presidents who are generally deemed to have been successful. Was TR a better president than Lincoln or Jackson? Who knows. Its incredibly difficult to assess. They each faced challenges unique to their eras. Nevertheless, TR is frequently included in the top 5 US presidents (generally along with Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, and FDR (Yes, this is wikipedia, but the aggregation of all the various polls of historians is very interesting). Unlike the other 4 TR is neither a sainted founding father nor a successful wartime president. So, what did he do that was so influential?

To begin, it helps to understand the context of the time. TR's presidency is near the end of the Republican stranglehold on the executive branch that began with Lincoln's election. Between Lincoln and TR, 6 Republicans were elected president and only 1 Democrat (Grover Cleveland). As a result of the dominance of the pro-business Republican Party, the post civil war era was defined by a laissez-faire (hands off) approach to business. This was the era of trusts (US Steel and Standard Oil to name just two of the most influential). The power of the trusts was often aided by the complicity of government. This was sometimes through active corruption, but often simply the result of government officials turning a blind eye to the excesses of successful businessmen. Republican administrations, beginning with Grant's, were frequently caught up in corruption scandals relating to their business allies. While these tended not to be large enough to undermine public support for Republicans, they contributed to an impression that government and power was increasingly held by corrupt public officials and their industrial funders.

This was the political environment in 1901 when TR was accidentally propelled to the presidency by the assassination of William McKinley. Previous to this, TR had been the popular Governor of New York, where he frequently quarreled with the old guard of the Republican party. Ironically, many of these interests (such as political boss Tom Platt) encouraged TR to become VP in the hopes of sidelining him in a mostly ceremonial office.

While he is generally remembered as a Progressive, opposed to the power of big business, TR in fact stuck a middle path, going after trusts only when they became too large and non-competitive. He successfully broke up both Standard Oil and the Northern Securities Company (a railroad trust), and overall brought 44 anti-trust suits, significantly more than any of his predecessors. He also helped institute progressive reforms such as the pure food and drugs act and created the first national parks.

TR also changed the role of the presidency (and of the US as a whole). He saw the growing power of the political press, and sought to use them as a political tool. Accordingly, he was the first president to give regular press conferences, in order to make the best use of his 'bully pulpit' (a term he coined). Finally, he set the trend for more active and interventionist American foreign policy. He intervened frequently in Latin America, most famously creating the Panamanian republic in order to begin construction of the Panama canal. Finally, TR seems to get a bit of a PR bump due to the fact that his face is literally carved into a mountain along side Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington.

Sources / Further Reading for TR:

• The Bully Pulpit by Dorris Kerns Goodwin

• Mornings on Horseback by David McCullah (like most of his books this one places more emphasis on narrative and storytelling than total historical accuracy)

• Edmund Morris' 3 Volume series: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, and Colonel Roosevelt.