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The New York Times–bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner examines the history of leadership, and the crucial role of leaders in a healthy democracy.
In Transforming Leadership, James MacGregor Burns illuminates the evolution of leadership structures—from the chieftains of tribal African societies, through Europe's absolute monarchies, to the blossoming of the Enlightenment's ideals of liberty and happiness during the American Revolution.
Along the way, he looks at key breakthroughs in leadership and the towering leaders who attempted to transform their worlds—Elizabeth I, Washington, Jefferson, Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gorbachev, and others. Culminating in a bold and innovative plan to address the greatest global leadership challenge of the twenty-first century, the long-intractable problem of global poverty, Transforming Leadership will spark lively discussion in classrooms and boardrooms throughout the country.
Praise for Transforming Leadership
“Transforming Leadership is the grittiest of these books on democracy, for it posits a vision of democracy based on the intimate organizations that make up movements for social change. Democracy is not the result of smooth social evolution; it requires leaders, conflicts, ideology and activism.” —Kimberly Phillips-Fein, The Washington Post
“Harvesting vignettes from American and world history and reading them in light of new sociological and psychological research, [Burns’] latest book aims to put “transforming leadership” at the core of Western values.” —Christopher Caldwell, The New York Times
“A wonderful walkabout—a stroll with a brilliant, humane, and beloved old professor whose courses you took long ago. . . . [Transforming Leadership] is methodical, logically arranged, and easy to follow.” —Philip Gold, The Washington Times
“Burns [offers] a new vision that focuses on the ways that leaders emerge from being ordinary “transactional” deal-makers to become dynamic agents of major social change who empower their followers. . . . [Transforming Leadership] culminates in a bold and innovative plan to address the greatest global leadership challenge of the 21st century: The long-intractable problem of global poverty.” —The North Adams Transcript
“Enlightening and empowering.” —Meme Black, Berkshire Eagle
“These accessible anecdotes, as well as Burns’s explications of historical examples, will ensure [Transforming Leadership’s] influence beyond its most obvious implications for political science. . . . Burns’s underlying theory imagines leadership as part of a broader social process in which leaders and followers are closely interrelated.” —Publishers Weekly
“An excellent examination of the art of motivating, organizing, and directing people for the common good. . . . Burns gives concise histories behind the subject matters before dissecting the different leadership styles of monarchs, politicians, and social reformers and the impact they have made throughout the world.” —Michelle Kaske, Booklist
James MacGregor Burns is Senior Scholar at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond and Woodrow Wilson Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Williams College. He is the author of numerous books, including The American Experiment, The Deadlock of Democracy, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, and The Three Roosevelts (with co-author Susan Dunn).