Getting Old in the Young Nation

What was it like getting old in a nation self-defined as a young nation? This research considers changes in how old men in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries self-conceptualized their own aging process, and how others around them perceived their aging. The American Revolution’s embrace of youthfulness—epitomized in constant descriptions of the young nation, and in the young men who largely led the Revolution—undermined traditional assurances of respect for the aged.