Arikah Map

Awakening Generation

American Generations

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TermPeriod
Awakening Generation1701–1723
First Great Awakening1727–1746
Liberty Generation
Republican Generation
Compromise Generation		1724–1741
1742–1766
1767–1791
Second Great Awakening1790–1844
Transcendentalist Generation
Transcendental Generation
Abolitionist Generation
Gilded Generation
Progressive Generation		1789–1819
1792–1821
1819–1842
1822–1842
1843–1859
Third Great Awakening1886–1908
Missionary Generation
Lost Generation
Interbellum Generation
G.I. Generation
Greatest Generation		1860–1882
1883–1900
1900–1910
1900–1924
1911–1924
Jazz Age1929–1956
Silent Generation
Baby Boomers
Beat Generation
Generation Jones		1925–1945
1946–1964
1948–1962
1954–1962
Consciousness Revolution1964–1984
Baby Busters
Generation X
MTV Generation
1958–1968
1963–1978
1975–1984
Culture Wars1980s–present
Boomerang Generation
Generation Y
Internet Generation
New Silent Generation		1977–1986
1979–1999
1988–1999
2000–2020

The Awakening Generation is the name given by Strauss and Howe in their book Generations to those Americans born from 1701 to 1723.

Born into security in an age in which family discipline loosened, Awakeners could find little spiritual comfort in the secular world of the midlifers of the Glorious Generation. Coming of age in the 1730s they became much more emotionally involved in religious practice through studying the Bible in a more personal manner. This movement, known as the First Great Awakening, gives the generation its name, and also gave it a "Puritan" label.

However, only when they saw that these attempts to create a new order had failed the younger Liberty Generation, did they pay much attention to worldly affairs. In doing so, the Awakeners devised an entirely new vision of an America where all people stood on an equal footing under God, and where education aimed at spiritual virtue rather than social utility. This led the Awakeners to very strong patriotism during the American Revolution in their elderhood, when Charles Chauncy saw death fighting for freedom as preferable to the corruption engendered by British rule.

Altogether, about 550,000 Americans were born between 1701 and 1723; 19 percent were immigrants and 18 percent were slaves at any point in their lives. Their typical grandparents were of the Cavalier Generation; their parents of the Glorious Generation and Enlightenment Generation. Their children were of the Liberty Generation and Republican Generation and their typical grandchildren were of the Compromise Generation.

This is the first generation in American history to attract attention outside America. It created the intellectual fire of the American Revolution. The oldest generation present at the establishment of the Constitution of the United States, it still wielded influence even in advanced age. Before it made its mark, the British colonies in North America could be treated as a cultural, political, and economic backwater. After it made its mark, this generation had established a new nation that from its inception has been a cultural, political, and economic power.

Members

The following is a list of sample members with birth and death dates as this generation is fully ancestral:

The Awakening Generation was the last generation until the Silent Generation to produce no US presidents. However, it held colonial governorships over the following periods:

Cultural endowments of the Awakening Generation include:

Foreign Peers

Preceded by:
Enlightenment Generation
1674 – 1700		Awakening Generation
1701 – 1723		Succeeded by:
Liberty Generation
1724 – 1741

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American generations

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