Politics, Ethics and Change : The Legacy of James MacGregor Burns

For decades, the writings of James MacGregor Burns have defined the central issues in our understanding of leadership. Their impact is illustrated here through ten chapters exploring Burns's research on presidential leadership and related issues of moral and effective leadership, the nature of social change and transformation, and the subtleties of the relationships between leaders and followers. Exploring history through the dynamics of leadership, this extraordinary volume outlines the dynamics of social change and transformation and illustrates how leaders shape followers' motivations. The transactional and transforming leadership of various US presidents is considered within broader questions of personal ethics, conflict and compromise, and historical contingency. The presidencies of Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson in particular transformed American society and American politics. The chapters in this book explore the several ways they fought for enduring human values using power resources that aroused and satisfied deep human motives and tested the limits of leadership effectiveness and morality. Students of leadership, the US Presidency, the American Founding, and history in general will find this book enlightening. Scholars and leaders in business, psychology and philosophy will also find much of value given James MacGregor Burns's insightful analysis across a wide field of disciplines.