The Founding Fathers on Aging Political Leadership, Then and Now

We have the oldest collective political leadership we have ever had in American life—and this election cycle largely promises more of the same.  While some have charged an aging generation with instituting a new gerontocracy, others see it as a logical outcome of greater life expectancies.  Add in generational angst and jousting for power.  It was the baby boomers who made the phrase “don’t trust anybody over 30” an American mantra—but the Revolutionary generation would have recognized the slogan.  Is there a historical example that might help us make sense of these dilemmas today?  As it turns out, the Founding Fathers such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were born into a world that respected age, but grew old in the world they had created—one in which younger men were assumed to reign supreme.  After the American Revolution, Americans embraced a vision embracing youth as the guarantor of creativity and vitality.  At the same time, they increasingly disparaged old age and the elderly.  And yet, the founding generation waffled when it came to the age profile and expectations of their own political leadership.  They were often younger than they had been before the Revolution, yet presidents were well into late middle age before taking office.  What did the Founders think about aged political leadership?  How might that shed light on our contemporary dilemmas?

Rebecca Brannon is an associate professor of early American history at James Madison University.  She holds a PhD from the University of Michigan.  Dr. Brannon is the author of From Revolution to Reunion: The Reintegration of the South Carolina Loyalists (University of South Carolina Press, 2016), which won the 2016 George C. Rogers, Jr. award for the best book of the year in South Carolina history and was featured on the Journal of the American Revolution’s 100 Best Books on the American Revolution list.  Today’s talk comes from her book-in-progress on the Founding Fathers and Mothers and their experiences with old age, tentatively titled Did the Founding Fathers Live Too Long?.  Her work has been featured in all kinds of public forums from the Washington Post to TLC’s Who Do You Think You Are?.

Online with Zoom
For login instructions, visit this members-only page on our website.  You can also email admin@oakparktemple.org for additional help and instructions.
Learn more here about how Zoom works.