The Top-10 Greatest Leaders of the 20th Century (2024)

By Jan-Benedict Steenkamp

The 20th century was an age of extremes. That century witnessed many utterly evil leaders. Take you pick—Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Mengele, and so on. Earlier, I wrote an article about the top-10 worst ones. But the last century also saw many great leaders. When I say “great” leader, I don’t mean that they did not make major mistakes too, e.g., think about Churchill's neglect of the Bengal famine in 1943. Like the great leaders of old such as Alexander the Great and Isabella of Castile, with their faults, these 20th century leaders leaders were vital in leaving the world a vastly better place than it would have been without them. Here is my top-10.

#1. Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Even in this exalted company, Churchill towers above everybody else. A functioning alcoholic, almost singlehandedly, he kept Britain in the war against that utterly evil empire, the Third Reich. His speech after Dunkirk in the House of Commons on June 4, 1940 is the stuff of giants: “We shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” My parents, in occupied Amsterdam listened to it and got hope. So did the British who fought on until the bitter end. If Churchill would not have stood tall, I would not have been able to write this article. At Yalta (1945), he warned FDR against Soviet designs, to no avail. After the War, he was the first to see the danger of the Soviet Union.

#2. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)

Roosevelt became president when the country was as its nadir. The social fabric of society was collapsing, unemployment stratospheric. The people were despondent. He led by offering hope, being cool, rational, and measured, and he made it about “us.” He said these timeless words his first inaugural address: So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” He pulled the country back from the economic and social abyss. But he was not done yet. Later, in 1940-1941, he persuaded a thoroughly isolationist American people to give aid to Churchill’s Britain against the Nazis ("Lend-Lease"). He led the country during the war as he did in the 1930s, with a sure and steady hand.

#3. Martin Luther King (1929-1968)

Racism was a cancer corrupting the fabric of American society. And then came King. From his early work as leader of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1954 (triggered by Rosa Parks defiance), he fought for racial justice and nonviolent resistance, As a Baptist minister, King wrestled with the tension between the Christian ethic of love and his strong desire to fight for racial justice. His philosophical breakthrough occurred in the spring of 1950, when he attended a lecture on the nonviolent resistance of Mahatma Gandhi. King led the struggle against desegregation, for voting rights, and economic and social justice. He was jailed time and again. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and civil rights acts were passed in 1964 and 1965. Having received many death threats, he knew the danger. This is what he said to his flock at Ebenezer Church, Atlanta: "Every now and then I think about my own death . . . Every now and then I ask myself, 'What is it that I would want said?'... Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize. That isn’t important... I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others." He was murdered two months later but his life and legacy changed the world.

#4. Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

Gandhi undertook a task that was widely seen as impossible—to take on the most powerful empire on earth. Gandhi understood that Britain was too strong to be challenged in an armed struggle. Moreover, that was not his philosophy. Instead, Gandhi advocated nonviolent resistance—in the form of strikes, boycotts, and protest marches—all predicated on love for the oppressor, provided a viable alternative to armed struggle to set India free. Gandhi’s goal was not to defeat the British in India, but to redeem them through love so as to avoid a legacy of bitterness. Gandhi called this satyagraha (satya is “truth” which equals “love,” and agraha is “force”). It reconciled love and force in a single, operational concept. He achieved his goal, although to his intense dismay, the separation of India and Pakistan was anything but peaceful. He was assassinated by a Hindu extremist who objected to Gandhi's tolerance for Muslims. His life is an example for all ages.

#5. Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

See Also

Was Jesus a Great Leader?

Einstein is the ultimate though leader of all times, second only to Isaac Newton. His brilliant work on relativity laid the foundation for modern physics and astronomy, nuclear energy and, yes, nuclear weapons. The theory of relativity is so unique, innovative, and complex that it still begs the question how a twenty-six year old part-time scientist (he had another job) could develop it. Einstein was key to convincing FDR to launch the Manhattan project building an atomic bomb because of the danger Germany would be first. Einstein is the most famous scientist that has ever lived. He is often evoked in ordinary conversations like "He is no Einstein."

#6. Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)

The first-ever elected female leader of a major Western country, Thatcher won three elections, fought a war, defeated the unions, and turned around Britain’s inexorable economic and political decline, that started after World War II. Her leadership was crucial in ending what has been called the “post-war consensus,” consisting of heavy regulation, interventionist policies (“Keynesianism”), nationalization of key industries, strong trade unions, high taxes, and a generous welfare state. Her successes gave credibility to an alternative point of view—privatization, lower taxes, and reduction of absurdly generous social benefits. It encouraged an entire generation of young Europeans, including myself, not to rely on the state, but on their own hard work. Her transformation of society was so profound that when the Labour Party returned to power under Tony Blair, virtually none of her reforms were overturned. In 2019, the election manifesto of the Labour Party called for a return to many of the pre-Thatcher policies of the 1970s. The result? Labour suffered its worst electoral defeat since the 1930s.

#7. Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

Mandela grew up under the vicious apartheid regime in South Africa. He led the ANC’s armed struggle against the regime until he was captured and imprisoned for life. In prison, he was humiliated and conditions were harsh, very harsh. He overcame his bitterness once he realized that that bitterness and hatred would imprison him, even if he would no longer be in prison. In his own words: “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” Easier said than done, but he did it. When the apartheid regime started to totter, he negotiated with the white-minority government, led by tough Afrikaners, a peaceful transition towards a democratic South Africa. Due to his decisive leadership, the “endless rivers of blood” that would accompany any fight over the country never happened. As the first president of a democratic South Africa, he worked tirelessly to bring blacks and whites together.

#8. Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

Born in what is now North-Macedonia, Mother Teresa went to India where she worked for nearly 50 years among the poor of Calcutta, those who were forgotten and neglected by everybody else. She provided medical care, shelter, and food to the needy. She founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation that now has over 5,000 nuns, easily recognizable by their attire of traditional whitesari with blue border. The organization is active in 130+ countries. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 "for her work for bringing help to suffering humanity." Mother Teresa became St. Teresa of Calcutta in 2016. Mother Teresa gave us hope that the world is not only about power and privilege, and that the downtrodden do matter.

#9. Wangari Maathai (1940-2011)

Perhaps you might think Wangari Who? But one of the most important developments in the 20th century is that we finally have come to acknowledge the effects of human activity on environmental degradation, deforestation, and climate change. Prof. Maathai was at the forefront of this. A women born in a mud hut, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in post-colonial Kenya. The Green Belt Movement started as an initiative for tree planting. As the Green Belt Movement’s activities expanded in the 1980s, Maathai concluded that environmental degradation could not be addressed in isolation. Rather, it was a consequence of disempowerment of the Kenyan people, of government corruption and cronyism. This insight led her to expand local community activities beyond tree planting, which remained a core activity, to education seminars, in which issues of democracy, human rights, gender, and power were discussed. The perspective that environment, human rights, and governance are intimately linked, became central to Green Belt Movement’s message. Its mission became “To mobilize community consciousness for self-determination, equity, improved livelihood securities and environmental conservation using trees as entry point.” In 2004 she received the Nobel Peace Prize “for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” It was the first time an African woman received the prize and the first time it was awarded to an environmentalist. President Barack Obama summarized her legacy after her death in 2011 as follows: “Professor Maathai’s tireless efforts earned her … the respect of millions who were inspired by her commitment to conservation, democracy, women’s empowerment, the eradication of poverty, and civic engagement…. Her legacy will stand as an example to all of us to persist in our pursuit progress.”

#10. Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

When Reagan was elected president, the U.S. had lost its bearings. The country had serious problems. Most problematic, it had lost that unique quality of optimism, of the belief that America is able to overcome any challenge. With Reagan, it became ‘Morning Again in America.’ The Gipper cut taxes, unleashing the animal spirits and rebuilt the armed forces. His ridiculed Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) forced the Soviet Union to face reality—they neither had the money nor knowledge to compete with America anymore. Gorbachev saw the writing on the Wall and embarked on a new approach of openness and constructive engagement, which was reciprocated by Reagan. The Wall fell in the year Reagan left office.