James David Barber

James David Barber (1930–2004) was a renowned American political scientist best known for his influential book *The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House* (1972), which classified U.S. presidents into active-positive, active-negative, passive-positive, and passive-negative types based on personality traits. He taught at Yale University before joining Duke University in 1972 as chair of the political science department, later becoming James B. Duke Professor until his retirement in 1995 due to a neurological disorder. Barber also authored works like *The Pulse of Politics* and served as chairman of Amnesty International U.S.A. in the mid-1980s.