Elihu Root (1845-1937), American statesman and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (1912). Root was born in Clinton, New York, and educated at Hamilton College and the University of the City of New York. A Republican, he was United States district attorney in New York from 1883 to 1885. After his appointment in 1899 as secretary of war, he planned the new U.S. Army War College, now at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania, and reorganized the administrative system of the department. In 1903 he served as a member of the Alaska Boundary Tribunal. He was secretary of state from 1905 to 1909, and in 1906 he represented the United States at the Pan-American Congress, of which he was honorary president.

In 1909 Root was elected senator from New York; he served until 1915. The 1912 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to him in recognition of his efforts for international peace. In the 1912 Republican National Convention he was permanent chairman and was a leader of those who supported President William Howard Taft. In 1917 he was made ambassador extraordinary and head of a special diplomatic mission to Russia. In 1929 he was a member of the League of Nations committee to revise the World Court Statute. His writings include Latin America and the United States (1917), Russia and the United States (1917), and Men and Policies (1924).