Description for REBELS AND GENTLEMEN: PHILADELPHIA IN THE AGE OF FRANKLIN by Carl and Jessica Bridenbaugh: Carl Bridenbaugh's history of the cultural conditions of Philadelphia and surroundings from 1740 to 1775 is divided into ten chapters. It was a happy thought to undertake the description of the cultural preparation for the Revolution in the City of Brotherly Love which prided itself as a "second London" in America. The authors divided the subject into three main parts: literature, art, and science. At firs the reader may be surprised that the most notable figure in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin, is mentioned so little, although owing to his prominence the French call that period "l'Age d'Or de Pennsylvanie" and his name appears on the title of the book. In the last chapter the authors give an explanation for this apparent omission with these words: "Franklin had lived in Philadelphia for only fifteen of the thirty-five years chronicled in these pages." Bridenbaugh (1903 - 1992), an American historian of Colonial America, had an illustrious career, writing fourteen books and editing or co-editing five more, and was acclaimed as a historian and teacher. He was the first director of the Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, Va., from 1945 to 1950. He served as president of the American Historical Association in 1962 and stirred a debate with a speech to the organization contending that urbanites were ill-suited to analyze Colonial history because they did not understand rural culture. His first wife and co-author of this book, the former Jessica Hill, died in 1943.
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