The Old Revolutionaries: Political Lives in the Age of Samuel Adams

by Pauline Maier

The "old revolutionaries" were Samuel Adams, Isaac Sears, Thomas Young, Richard Henry Lee, and Charles Carroll, five men of widely varying backgrounds who played significant roles in the American Revolution. What motivations brought these different men together and made them decide to join the movement for Independence? In telling their stories, Pauline Maier explores the American Revolution not so much as a collective movement as a commitment to an ideal republic--which different people interpreted differently. Pauline Maier has written a new Introduction to the Norton paperback edition, in which she discusses the Old Revolutionaries' pertinence to current debates over liberalism in the American Revolution. Professor Maier teaches history at MIT and is also the author of From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776.

Genres: History, American Revolution, American Revolutionary War, Nonfiction, Biography, American History

348 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 1980

About the author

Dr. Pauline Maier was a historian of the American Revolution, though her work also addressed the late colonial period and the history of the United States after the end of the Revolutionary War. She was the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of American History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Maier achieved prominence over a fifty-year career of critically acclaimed scholarly histories and journal articles. She was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and taught undergraduates. She authored textbooks and online courses. Her popular career included series with PBS and the History Channel. She appeared on Charlie Rose, C-SPAN2's In Depth and wrote 20 years for The New York Times review pages. Maier was the 2011 President of the Society of American Historians. She won the 2011 George Washington Book Prize for her book Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. She died in 2013 from lung cancer at the age of 75.

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a bit dull. The biographical essays seem to have as their goal to uncover what drove each of the "old revolutionaries" to becoming such and to show how they differed from the younger generation generally known as the "founding fathers." Her conclusion is that people ended up backing the same cause for very different reasons and that the earlier generation was more conservative.

[Charlene Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book - I read it as part of research for a new book I am writing, this was invaluable for my research. Accessible and detailed, it is an excellent book for someone who wants insights into the people active in leadership positions during the Revolutionary War.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. Underwhelming, but enjoyed this passage about Samuel Adams:

p.32 - "Whenever freedom was lost and tyranny established, he (Samuel Adams) wrote in 1772, 'Immorality of every Kind comes in like a Torrent. It is in the Interest of Tyrants to reduce the People to Ignorance and Vice. For they cannot live in any Country where Virtue and Knowledge prevail.'"