James MacGregor Burns

• Born: 1918

Award-winning writer James MacGregor Burns is a biographer who specializes in the study of leadership in American political life, and coined the theory of "transformational leadership" – leadership that delivers true value, integrity, and trust. His book, Leadership(1978), is still considered the seminal work in the field of leadership studies.

Burns won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his biographies, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956) and Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (1970). With a doctorate in political science from Harvard, Burns attended the London School of Economics, and taught at Williams College. A Democratic nominee for the 1st Congressional District of Massachusetts in 1958, he served as a delegate to four Democratic National Conventions, and is a former president of both the American Political Science Association and the International Society of Political Psychology.

Most Famous Works

• Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956)
• Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (1970)
• Leadership (1978)
• Dead Center: Clinton-Gore Leadership and the Perils of Moderation (1999)
• The Three Roosevelts: Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America (2001)

Pioneer British Spiritualist and publisher, who founded the influential weekly newspaper the Medium in 1869, later absorbed with the Daybreak. Burns also established the Progressive Library and Spiritual Institution in Holborn, London, 1863. With their annual subscription, members were entitled to borrow from the thousands of Spiritualist publications available. The institute was also a center and meeting place for Spiritualists in London and organized programs of séances, developing circles and concerts. Burns was criticized because he opposed such other organizations as the National Association of Spiritualists. However, he established a great reputation as a courageous and tireless worker in the cause of Spiritualism. He died December 30, 1894.

For other persons named James Burns, see James Burns (disambiguation).

James MacGregor Burns (born August 3, 1918) is a presidential biographer, authority on Leadership Studies, Woodrow Wilson Professor (emeritus) of Political Science at Williams College, where he also received his B.A. He is also a scholar at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in 1971 for his Roosevelt: Soldier of Freedom 1940-1945.

His key innovation in leadership theory was shifting away from studying the traits of great men and transactional management to focus on the interaction of leaders and led as collaborators working toward mutual benefit. He is best known for contributions to the Transformational, Aspirational and Visionary schools of leadership theory.

Excerpts from his book Leadership:

• Leadership over human beings is exercised when persons with certain motives and purposes mobilize, in competition or conflict with others, institutional, political, psychological, and other resources so as to arouse, engage, and satisfy the motives of followers... in order to realize goals mutually held by both leaders and followers....

• Transformational leadership occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality.

• That people can be lifted into their better selves is the secret of transforming leadership and the moral and practical theme of this work.

Books

• Roosevelt: Soldier of Freedom 1940-1945, published with Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich in 1970 (ISBN 0-15-602757-7).
• Transforming Leadership: The Pursuit of Happiness, published with Atlantic Monthly Press in 2003 (ISBN 0-87113-866-2).
• The Three Roosevelts: Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America, with Susan Dunn, published with Grove Press in 2001 (ISBN 0-8021-3872-1).
• Leadership, published with Harper Collins in 1978 (ISBN 0-06-010588-7).
• Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox
• John Kennedy: A Political Profile
• Government by the People
• Packing the Court: The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court, published with Penguin Group in 2009 (ISBN 1594202192)

External links

• University of Maryland's James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership
• Booknotes interview with Burns on The Crosswinds of Freedom, June 4, 1989.

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