James MacGregor Burns facts for kids

James MacGregor Burns (born August 3, 1918 – died July 15, 2014) was an American historian and expert on how leaders work. He also wrote biographies of presidents.

He taught at Williams College for many years. Later, he became a special scholar at the University of Maryland, where an academy for leadership was named after him.

In 1971, he won two big awards, the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He received these for his book about America's 32nd president, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom.

Burns changed how people thought about leadership. Instead of just looking at what great leaders did, he focused on how leaders and their followers work together for everyone's good. He was famous for his ideas on different types of leadership, especially "transactional" and "transformational" leadership.

Biography

Military Service During World War II

After finishing college, Burns worked for a year in Washington, D.C., for a politician from Utah. He then spent some time at Harvard and worked for the War Labor Board in Colorado.

During World War II, Burns was called to serve in the U.S. Army. He worked as a combat historian in the Pacific region. He earned the Bronze Star and four Battle Stars for his service. While in the army, he noticed that people often talked about the qualities of officers, but not as much about the soldiers themselves.

Academic Career and Teaching

In 1947, Burns began teaching at Williams College. He taught there for almost 40 years, retiring in 1986. He was a member of important academic groups, like the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also led the American Political Science Association.

In the early 1990s, he taught at the University of Maryland. There, a special leadership academy was named after him: the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership. In 2010, he won another award for his important writings on American history.

Political Involvement

Burns was a Democrat and believed in liberal ideas. In 1958, he ran for a seat in Congress in Massachusetts but did not win. During this time, he met John F. Kennedy, who was a U.S. Senator then. Burns helped Kennedy gain support from Protestant voters. In return, Kennedy helped Burns get support from Catholic voters.

This connection allowed Burns to write a book about Kennedy in 1960. In his book, Burns described Kennedy as "casual as a cash register" and "quiet, taut, efficient—sometimes, perhaps, even dull." Kennedy's wife, Jackie, was not happy with the book, saying Burns "underestimated" her husband.

Personal Life

James MacGregor Burns graduated from Lexington High School in 1935. He was a Congregationalist. He had four children with his first wife, and three of them were still living when he passed away.

In 1964, he met Joan Simpson Meyers, who was interviewing him for her book about President Kennedy. Four years later, Burns and Meyers got married. They lived together for 25 years. Later in his life, he was good friends with his first wife and lived with his longtime companion and fellow professor, Susan Dunn.

Burns passed away in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on July 15, 2014. He was 95 years old and had written more than 20 books.

Views on Government

Burns admired strong leaders in the White House. He often criticized the U.S. government's system of checks and balances. He felt this system could slow down progress, especially when Congress was divided or against the president.

In his books, he suggested changes to the system. For example, he thought there should be term limits for Supreme Court justices. He also believed that presidents should be allowed to serve more than two terms if they were doing a good job.

Theory of Leadership

Burns's book Leadership (1978) helped create the field of leadership studies. In this book, he introduced two main types of leadership:

• Transactional leadership: This is when leaders and followers focus on a give-and-take relationship. It's about exchanging things, like rewards for good work.
• Transformational leadership: This is when leaders inspire and motivate their followers. They focus on the beliefs, needs, and values of their followers, helping them become better people and achieve higher goals.

Here are some of his ideas:

• "Leadership over human beings is exercised when persons with certain motives and purposes mobilize... resources so as to arouse, engage, and satisfy the motives of followers... in order to realize goals mutually held by both leaders and followers...." This means leaders use their skills to inspire people to work together for shared goals.
• "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." This shows how transformational leaders help everyone involved become more motivated and act with better values.
• "That people can be lifted into their better selves is the secret of transforming leadership and the moral and practical theme of this work." This highlights that transformational leadership is about helping people reach their full potential.

James MacGregor Burns was very interested in finding a general theory that could explain all types of leadership. He led a project with many scholars to try and achieve this goal. While they learned a lot, he admitted they didn't fully reach that goal.

His work has influenced many other thinkers in leadership, such as Bernard Bass and Kenneth Leithwood. His ideas also inspired the creation of the Center for Political Leadership and Participation at the University of Maryland, which was later renamed the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership in his honor.

Books

• Congress on Trial: The Legislative Process and the Administrative State (Harper, 1949).
• Government by the People (textbook) (1952; 20th ed. 2003), Prentice-Hall.
• Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox, 1882-1940 (first volume of two-volume set) (Harcourt, Brace, 1956).
• John Kennedy: A Political Profile (Harcourt, Brace, 1960).
• The Deadlock of Democracy: Four-Party Politics in America (Prentice Hall, 1963).
• Government by the People: The Dynamics of American National Government (1963).
• Presidential Government: The Crucible of Leadership (Houghton-Mifflin, 1965).
• Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 1940-1945 (second volume of two-volume set) (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970) (1971 Pulitzer Prize for History, 1971 Francis Parkman Prize).(ISBN: 978-0-15-602757-1).
• Uncommon Sense (1972).
• Edward Kennedy and the Camelot Legacy (1976).
• Leadership (HarperCollins, 1978) (ISBN: 978-0-06-010588-4).
• The Vineyard of Liberty, 1787-1863 (The American Experiment Book 1 of 3) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1982) (ISBN: 978-0-394-50546-6).
• The Power to Lead: The Crisis of the American Presidency (Touchstone Books, 1984).
• The Workshop of Democracy, 1863-1932 (The American Experiment Book 2 of 3) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1985) (ISBN: 978-0-394-50546-6).
• The Crosswinds of Freedom, 1932-1988 (The American Experiment Book 3 of 3) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1989) (ISBN: 978-0-394-51276-1).
• Cobblestone Leadership: Majority Rule, Minority Power (University of Oklahoma Press, 1990).
• A People's Charter: The Pursuit of Rights in America (with Stewart Burns) (Knopf, 1991).
• The Democrats Must Lead: The Case for a Progressive Democratic Party (with William Crotty) (1992).
• Dead Center: Clinton-Gore Leadership and the Perils of Moderation (with Georgia Jones Sorenson) (1999).
• The Three Roosevelts: Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America, with Susan Dunn (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001) (ISBN: 978-0-8021-3872-9).
• Transforming Leadership: A New Pursuit of Happiness (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003) (ISBN: 978-0-87113-866-8).
• George Washington (with Susan Dunn) (ed. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.) (Times Books, 2004).
• Encyclopedia of Leadership (with Georgia Jones Sorenson and George R. Goethals) (2004).
• Running Alone: Presidential Leadership — JFK to Bush II: Why It Has Failed and How We Can Fix It (Basic Books, 2006).
• Packing the Court: The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court (Penguin Press, 2009) (ISBN: 978-1-59420-219-3).
• Fire and Light: How the Enlightenment Transformed Our World (St. Martin's Press, 2013) (ISBN: 978-1-250-02489-3).