James David Barber (July 31, 1930 – September 12, 2004) was a political scientist whose book The Presidential Character made him famous for his classification of presidents through their worldviews. From 1977 to 1995, he taught political science at Duke University.

Background

Barber was born on July 31, 1930, in Charleston, West Virginia, to a physician and a nurse. In the 1950s he served in the United States Army as a counter-intelligence agent before attending the University of Chicago, where he earned a master's degree in political science. He earned a Ph.D. in the same field from Yale University. He joined the faculty at Duke University in 1972, and became a full professor there in 1977. Before going to Duke he had taught at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. He is credited in the field of political science for being the first to examine presidents beyond case studies. He devised a system of organizing a president's character into either active-positive, passive-positive, active-negative, or passive-negative.