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James MacGregor Burns

ジェームズ・マクグレゴール・バーンズ

Jēmuzu Makuguregōru Bānzu

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1918-08-03 (Melrose, Massachusetts)
Died
2014-07-15 (Williamstown, Massachusetts) age 95
Nationality
American
Languages
English
Religion
Unknown
Residence History
Burlington, Massachusetts → Williamstown, Massachusetts

Career

Occupations
historian, political scientist, professor, leadership scholar
Active Years
1947-2014
Affiliations
Williams College, University of Maryland, College Park
Memberships
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Political Science Association (former president), International Society of Political Psychology (former president), American Philosophical Society, Omicron Delta Kappa
Influenced
Bernard Bass, Bruce Avolio, Kenneth Leithwood
Nominations
National Book Award History and Biography finalist (1957)

Education

Williams College
Government
Degree: Bachelor of Arts
Period: 1935-1939
Year of Graduation: 1939
Country: United States
Harvard University
Political Science
Degree: PhD
Year of Graduation: 1952
Country: United States
Ph.D. in political science
London School of Economics
Country: United Kingdom

Awards

Pulitzer Prize
1971
Work: Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom
Category: History
Organization: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Result: Winner
National Book Award
1971
Work: Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom
Category: History and Biography
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: Winner
Francis Parkman Prize
1971
Work: Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom
Organization: Society of American Historians
Result: Winner
Woodrow Wilson Foundation award
1957
Work: Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox
Organization: Woodrow Wilson Foundation
Result: Winner
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Award
2010
Category: Distinguished Writing in American History of Enduring Public Significance
Organization: Roosevelt Institute and Society of American Historians
Result: Winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox, 1882–1940

1956 Biography

First volume of FDR biography covering his early life and political rise to 1940.

leadershippolitical strategy

Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 1940–1945

1970 Biography

Second volume on FDR's leadership during World War II. Pulitzer Prize winner.

wartime leadershiptransformational leadership

Leadership

1978 Political Science

Seminal work establishing transactional and transformational leadership theories.

transformational leadershiptransactional leadershipleadership

The Vineyard of Liberty, 1787–1863

1982 American History

First volume of The American Experiment trilogy, from founding to Civil War.

democracyliberty

Bibliography

  • Congress on Trial: The Legislative Process and the Administrative State
  • Government by the People
  • Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox, 1882–1940
  • John Kennedy: A Political Profile
  • The Deadlock of Democracy
  • Presidential Government: The Crucible of Leadership
  • Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 1940–1945
  • Leadership
  • The Vineyard of Liberty, 1787–1863
  • The Power to Lead: The Crisis of the American Presidency
  • The Workshop of Democracy, 1863–1932
  • The Crosswinds of Freedom, 1932–1988
  • The Three Roosevelts
  • Transforming Leadership

Style & Themes

Literary Style
detailed historical analysistheoretical insightnarrative
Recurring Motifs
leader-follower interactiontransformational leadershipAmerican political history

Legacy

Pioneer of leadership studies, Pulitzer winner for FDR biography, and influential theorist of transformational leadership.

Academic Societies

  • American Political Science Association
  • International Society of Political Psychology
  • American Philosophical Society

Archives

  • Williams College Archives & Special Collections

In Popular Culture

  • Transformational leadership theory widely used in management and education.

Quotes

  • 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.
    Source: Leadership (1978)
  • 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.
    Source: Leadership (1978)

Trivia

  • Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. House in Massachusetts's 1st district in 1958.
  • Served as U.S. Army combat historian in Pacific theater during WWII, including Battle of Saipan, awarded Bronze Star.
  • Woodrow Wilson Professor of Government Emeritus at Williams College.