Kevin Kruse Answers:
Franklin D. Roosevelt. He led the country through two major crises, the Great Depression and World War II, and in so doing thoroughly revolutionized America’s sense of itself, its purpose and its place in the world. FDR’s New Deal not only introduced the welfare state to America and radically changed the scope of government; it also reconfigured American politics, sparking 60 years of debate between those who sought to expand it and those who sought to roll it back.
