James MacGregor Burns (August 3, 1918 – July 15, 2014) was an 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.

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.

Burns grew up in Burlington, Massachusetts where he attended grammar school at the Burlington Union School and attended Lexington High School in neighboring Lexington, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1935.

He received his bachelor's degree from Williams College and his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University, and also attended the London School of Economics.

Burns served in the military as a combat historian in the Pacific theater during World War II. He 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 officers and their traits and qualities, but did not include soldiers.

He taught at Williams College for nearly forty years. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is past president of the American Political Science Association and the International Society of Political Psychology.

Burns was the Democratic nominee for the 1st Congressional District of Massachusetts in 1958 and was also elected a delegate to four Democratic National Conventions.

Burns 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.

He died in Williamstown, Massachusetts on July 15, 2014, aged 95.

Theory of leadership

Burns' Leadership (1978) introduced two types of leadership: Transactional leadership where leaders focus on the relationship between the leader and follower, and Transformational leadership where leaders focus on the beliefs, needs and values of their followers.

Excerpts from Burns's 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.

Burns' work has influenced other transformational leadership theorists such as Bernard Bass, Bruce Avolio, Kenneth Leithwood, and a number of others.

Books

• Government by the People (textbook, 21 editions) (Prentice-Hall, 1952–present).
• Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (Harcourt, Brace, 1956).
• John Kennedy: A Political Profile (Harcourt, Brace, 1960).
• The Deadlock of Democracy: Four-Party Politics in America (Prentice Hall, 1963).
• Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970) (ISBN 0-15-602757-7).
• Leadership (Harper Collins, 1978) (ISBN 0-06-010588-7).
• The Vineyard of Liberty (Alfred A. Knopf, 1982) (ISBN 0394505468).
• The Workshop of Democracy (Alfred A. Knopf, 1985) (ISBN 0394505468).
• The Crosswinds of Freedom (Alfred A. Knopf, 1989) (ISBN 0394512766).
• Transforming Leadership: A New Pursuit of Happiness (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003) (ISBN 0-87113-866-2).
• The Three Roosevelts: Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America, with Susan Dunn (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001) (ISBN 0-8021-3872-1).
• Packing the Court: The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court (Penguin Press, 2009) (ISBN 1594202192).
• Fire and Light: How the Enlightenment Transformed Our World (St. Martin's Press, 2013) (ISBN 9781250024893).