Liberty Generation

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U.S. Generations * = dates disputed, ^ = Strauss and Howe This box: view • talk • edit
Term	Period
^Puritan Generation	1588–1617
Puritan Awakening	1621–1649
^Cavalier Generation ^Glorious Generation ^Enlightenment Generation ^Awakening Generation	1618-1648 1648-1673 1674-1700 1701–1723
First Great Awakening	1727–1746
^Liberty Generation ^Republican Generation ^Compromise Generation	1724–1741 1742–1766 1767–1791
Second Great Awakening	1790–1844
Transcendentalist Generation ^Transcendental Generation ^Gilded Generation ^Progressive Generation	1789–1819 1792–1821 1822–1842 1843–1859
Third Great Awakening	1886–1908
^Missionary Generation Lost Generation Interbellum Generation G.I. Generation Greatest Generation	1860–1882 1883–1900 1900–1910 1900–1924 1911–1924
Jazz Age	1918-1929
Beat Generation Silent Generation Baby Boomers Generation Jones	fl. 1950s-1960s 1925–1945 *1940s-1960s 1954–1965
Consciousness Revolution	1964–1984
Generation X ^13th Generation MTV Generation Boomerang Generation	*1960s–1980s 1961-1981 1974–1985 1977–1986
Culture Wars	1980s–present
Generation Y ^Millennial Generation Echo Boom Generation Internet Generation ^New Silent Generation	1970s–1990s 1982-2000 1982–1995 1994–2001 1990s or 2000s-?

The Liberty Generation is that name given by Strauss and Howe in their book Generations to those Americans born from 1724 to 1741.

Their lifecycle drove many of them to the brink of madness. Raised in an era of spiritual upheaval and economic dislocation, Liberty children hardly knew the care and protection of close family life. The eldest arrived too late to partake in the first Great Awakening; the youngest too early to feel the nurture that welcomed a younger generation in the 1750s.

Still in their teens, this generation bore the full brunt of the French and Indian War, the colonies' last imperial struggle. They tasted bitterness and death, and learned a brutal coming-of-age lesson: Get what you can grab, keep what's yours, and never trust authority. Until their mid-forties, they cut an unparalleled swath of crime, riot, and violence through American history. Whatever their army, they always performed best as plucky warrior-bands such as the Green Mountain Boys in Vermont, the Paxton Boys in Pennsylvania, or the Liberty Boys in New York. Hit by the American Revolution in midlife, the Liberty Generation responded in characteristic frenzy, mixing heroism with treachery, scrapping with each other, and ending up distrusted by everyone. No other generation risked more for the Declaration of Independence. Nor did any other "turn Tory" in such massive numbers.

The name of the generation comes from Patrick Henry: "Give me liberty or give me death!" When his peers sang, they sang songs such as John Dickinson's The American Liberty Song or Mercy Warren's Massachusetts Liberty Song. When they acted, they organized as Sons of Liberty, planted liberty trees, and paraded around liberty poles.

Altogether, about 1,100,000 Americans were born between 1724 and 1741; 24 percent were immigrants and 19 percent were slaves at any point in their lives. Their typical grandparents were of the Glorious Generation; their parents, Enlightenment Generation and Awakening Generation. Their children were of the Republican Generation and Compromise Generation and their typical grandchildren were of the Transcendental Generation.