George Washington by James MacGregor Burns

To what extent did he use the tactics of a fox in order to advance the wishes of a lion? To what extent did he have to be a transactional leader to be able to become a transforming leader?”

“He was a manipulator, and at the same time he had to be a lion. “I was very interested in how Machiavellian he was,” Burns told The Associated Press in 2007.

“Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox” was published in 1956, at a time when little serious work existed on FDR, who died in 1945. Later, he worked on a task force headed by Herbert Hoover and served as a congressional aide in Washington, where he was surprised by private scandal (he recalled hearing one drunken legislator brag about his womanizing), and fascinated by how democracy worked.īurns’ first book, “Congress on Trial,” came out in 1949 and was praised by The New York Times as a timely assessment of how federal legislators were deadlocked by local concerns. He earned four combat medals and the Bronze Star. He was an Army combat historian during World War II, recording the memories of soldiers just off the battlefield in Okinawa and elsewhere in the Pacific. in government from Harvard in 1947, the same year he began teaching at Williams. He majored in political science at Williams and received a Ph.D. In his late 80s, he wrote a well-reviewed history of the Supreme Court, “Packing the Court,” and at age 95 he completed a book on the Enlightenment, “Fire and Light.”īurns was born in 1918 in Melrose, Massachusetts, the son of a conservative businessman. Burns responded to telephone calls from listeners.Burns’ other books included “Leadership,” a 1978 release that outlined his theories of “transformational” and “transactional” and became standard reading among students of business and politics a biography of George Washington written with Dunn and a trilogy on U.S. He explained why he believes the Bush leadership has failed, and gave suggestions about how presidents can gain collective support from their constituents and colleagues. He also said that most presidents since have followed that example, to the detriment of the democratic process and growth of the “imperial presidency,” except for Presidents Johnson and Reagan. He said that President Kennedy changed American politics by running and governing with a group of trusted friends rather than working with the Democratic Party. T07:58:46-04:00 James MacGregor Burns appeared on the “Diane Rehm Show” to talk about his book Running Alone: Presidential Leadership, JFK to Bush II, Why It Has Failed and How We Can Fix It, published by Basic Books.

George Washington by James MacGregor Burns