The Revolutionary Cycle, 1734-1825 Summary and Analysis

All four generations of the Revolutionary Cycle were on their trains at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. The Awakeners (Idealists) inspired the troops as elders (some actually led troops) and had shed their younger condemnation of their elders for a focus on civic duty, a concept preached to the generation below them. The Liberty Generation (Reactives, now mid-lifers) had scorn for their elders but had fought in the French and Indian War as foot soldiers and now attempted to instruct their youngers on the realities of war and destruction. They expected no praise or reward for their efforts and, indeed, received none as elders. The Republican Generation (Civics rising adults) fought in the trenches but saw the war as merely the beginning of a larger, more sustained drama, to include the establishment of a...