Name James Burns | Role Historian | |
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Nominations National Book Award for Nonfiction Books Transforming Leadership, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedo, Fire and Light: How the Enlig, The three Roosevelts, Government by the People - B Similar People Jack Peltason, Susan Dunn, Thomas Cronin, David Magleby, Paul Charles Light | ||
James macgregor burns on leadership
James MacGregor Burns (August 3, 1918 in Melrose, MA – July 15, 2014 in Williamstown, MA) was an American historian and political scientist, presidential biographer, and authority on leadership studies. He was the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Government Emeritus at Williams College and Distinguished Leadership Scholar at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1971 Burns received the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in History and Biography for his work on America's 32nd president, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom.
Contents
- James macgregor burns on leadership
- Remembering elaine stritch johnny winter james macgregor burns
- Early life
- Military service
- Academic career
- Political career
- Death
- Views on government
- Theory of leadership
- Books
- References
Burns shifted the focus of leadership studies from the traits and actions of great men to the interaction of leaders and their constituencies as collaborators working toward mutual benefit. He was best known for his contributions to the transactional, transformational, aspirational, and visionary schools of leadership theory.
Remembering elaine stritch johnny winter james macgregor burns
Early life
Burns grew up in Burlington, MA where he attended grammar school at Burlington Union School, and attended Lexington High School in neighboring Lexington, MA, where he graduated in 1935. He received his bachelor's degree from Williams College in 1939, his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University in 1947 and also attended the London School of Economics.
Military service
After graduating from Williams, Burns went to Washington, D.C. and worked as a congressional aide. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army as a combat historian in the Pacific theater, and was awarded the Bronze Star and four Battle Stars. Throughout his military adventures, Burns noticed that when leadership was mentioned, it was in terms of the traits and qualities of officers, but not soldiers.
Academic career
Burns joined the faculty of Williams College in 1947, and taught there for nearly 40 years, retiring in 1986. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he served as president of the American Political Science Association and the International Society of Political Psychology. During the early 1990s he taught classes at the University of Maryland, where the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership was named for him. In 2010 he won the Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Award for Distinguished Writing in American History of Enduring Public Significance presented jointly by the Roosevelt Institute and the Society of American Historians.
His students included Georgia Jones Sorenson and Michael Beschloss.
Political career
A liberal, in 1958 Burns was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee in Massachusetts's 1st congressional district, meeting then-U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy and helping him gain Protestant support to get re-elected, while Kennedy helped him gain Catholic support. Burns gained personal access that allowed him to write his biography of Kennedy, published in 1960, which calls JFK "casual as a cash register," "quiet, taut, efficient--sometimes, perhaps, even dull," and generally too cerebral and lacking in heart. This angered Kennedy's wife Jackie, who said Burns "underestimated" him. Burns was eventually elected a delegate to four Democratic National Conventions.
Death
Burns died in Williamstown, MA, on July 15, 2014 at 95 after publishing more than 20 books.
Views on government
As an admirer of a strong leader in the White House, Burns was critical of the U.S. governmental system of checks and balances, which he viewed as an obstacle to progress in times of a divided or oppositional Congress. In The Deadlock of Democracy (1963) and Packing the Court: The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court (2009) he called for systemic changes, arguing for term limits for Supreme Court justices, an end to midterm elections, and a population-based Senate. Burns also advocated repeal of the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution to allow effective U.S. presidents to serve three or more terms of office.
Theory of leadership
Burns' Leadership (1978) founded the field of leadership studies, introducing two types of leadership: transactional leadership, in which leaders focus on the relationship between the leader and follower, and transformational leadership, in which leaders focus on the beliefs, needs, and values of their followers.
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His work has influenced other transformational leadership theorists such as Bernard Bass, Bruce Avolio, and Kenneth Leithwood, and inspired Georgia Jones Sorenson to found the Center for Political Leadership and Participation at the University of Maryland, which Burns joined in 1993, causing the center to be renamed in his honor in 1997 as the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership; it later became an independent nonprofit organization. In 2016, the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership will become part of Churchill College and the Moller Institute at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.