A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian examines transformational leaders from Moses to Machiavelli to Martin Luther King Jr. in this “impressive book” (The Washington Post).
 Historian and political scientist James MacGregor Burns has spent much of his career documenting the use and misuse of power by leaders throughout history. In this groundbreaking study, Burns examines the qualities that make certain leaders—in...

In Transforming Leadership, 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...

The authorized biography of John F. Kennedy offers a fresh and candid look at what shaped the man America came to love and admire, just as he was on the cusp of the presidency Historian, political scientist, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author James MacGregor Burns wrote Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox, the first volume of his highly acclaimed biography of FDR, in 1956. Two years later, Burns ran for a seat in Congress and became close friends with...

Burns's Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning history of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's final years   The second entry in James Macgregor Burns's definitive two-volume biography of Roosevelt begins with the president's precedent-breaking third term election in 1940, just as Americans were beginning to face the likelihood of war. Here, Burns examines Roosevelt's skillful wartime leadership as well as his vision for post-war peace. The Soldier...

The second volume of Burns's acclaimed history of America, from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the Great Depression   Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address pointed to a new way to preserve an old hope-that democracy might prove a vibrant and lasting form of government for people of different races, religions, and aspirations. The scars of the Civil War would not soon heal, but with that one short speech, the president held out the possibility...

The first volume of Burns's stunning account of American history, from the birth of the Constitution to the dawn of the Civil War The years between 1787 and 1863 witnessed the development of the American Nation-its society, politics, customs, culture, and, most important, the development of liberty. Burns explores the key events in the republic's early decades, as well as the roles of heroes from Washington to Lincoln and of lesser-known figures....

For decades, James MacGregor Burns has been one of the great masters of the study of power and leadership in America. Now he turns his eye to an institution of government that he believes has become more powerful-and more partisan-than the Founding Fathers ever intended: the Supreme Court. Much as we would like to believe that the Court remains aloof from ideological politics, Packing the Court reveals how often justices behave like politicians in...