MAIER, Pauline (Rubbelke) 1938-

PERSONAL: Born April 27, 1938, in St. Paul, MN; daughter of Irvin Louis (a fireman) and Charlotte (Winterer) Rubbelke; married Charles Steven Maier (a college professor), June 17, 1961; children: Andrea Nicole, Nicholas Winterer, Jessica Elizabeth Heine. Education: Radcliffe College, A.B., 1960; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1968. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Home—60 Larchwood Dr., Cambridge, MA 02138. Office—Department of Humanities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139. E-mail—pmaier@mit.edu.

CAREER: University of Massachusetts—Boston, assistant professor, 1968-72, associate professor of history, 1972-77; University of Wisconsin—Madison, Robinson Edwards Professor of History, 1977-78; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, professor of history, beginning 1978, became William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of American History.

AWARDS, HONORS: Fulbright scholar, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, 1960-61; National Book Critics Circle Award nominee, 1997, for American Scripture; Killian Award, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998; Douglass Adair Award for article in William and Mary Quarterly.

WRITINGS:

John Wilkes and American Disillusionment with Britain, 1963.

(Editor, with Bruce Bank and Brayton Polka) A Select Bibliography of History, revised edition, [Cambridge], 1963.

From Resistance of Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, Knopf (New York, NY), 1973.

(With Jack P. Greene) Interdisciplinary Studies of the American Revolution, Sage (Beverly Hills, CA), 1976.

(With Alfred Kazin and Michael G. Kammen) Perspectives on the American Revolution: Lectures Presented at the York Campus, the Pennsylvania State University, April-May 1976, Pennsylvania State University (York, PA), 1976.

The Old Revolutionaries: Political Lives in the Age of Samuel Adams, Knopf (New York, NY), 1980.

Boston and New York in the Eighteenth Century, American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, MA), 1981.

The American People: A History, D. C. Heath (Lexington, MA), 1986.

American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, Knopf (New York, NY), 1997.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Merritt Roe Smith, Alexander Keyssar, and Daniel J. Kevles) Inventing America: A History of the United States, Norton (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Pauline Maier is the author of a number of books on American history, particularly the Colonial period. Her American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence takes a look at the circumstances behind the writing of the Declaration of Independence. In Inventing America: A History of the United States, Maier and her coauthors present a history of the United States that highlights the role played by science and technology.

Maier's American Scripture tells the story of how Thomas Jefferson and a committee including John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and others, was charged by the Continental Congress with writing a document declaring America's sovereignty. While Jefferson wrote most of the document, the committee edited and cut Jefferson's original text. Maier examines existing early drafts to explain what had been changed or deleted and why. She notes that the committee was under a severe time limit to produce the document and that Jefferson drew on earlier texts to complete his work on time. Michael J. Ybarra in the San Francisco Chronicle found that Maier offers "a sharp and engaging textual analysis of the evolving document" and "has created an impressive piece of work herself: a meticulous examination of American history that is full of fascinating details and scintillating insights." Besides a careful analysis of the Declaration of Independence itself, Maier also presents "the context of the times in which it was written, as well as the English tradition of ideas, petitions and declarations from whence it flowed," according to Steve Forbes in Forbes magazine. Some critics believed that Maier's book made Jefferson's role in writing the Declaration of Independence seem less important than it was. Milton R. Konvitz in the New Leader pointed out that previous scholars already had acknowledged the role of others in writing and revising the Declaration. He noted that the section where the committee made the most changes, the list of grievances against King George III, was the least important section. "It is the first section that is transcendently and permanently valuable," Konvitz stated, "not only for Americans but for mankind. And that part is 99 per cent pure Jefferson." But Maier explained her feelings about Jefferson to Bonnie Blodgett in MPLS-St. Paul Magazine: "I have no desire to debunk the man, only to cut him back to size." "In the end," R. S. Hill admitted in his review of the book for the National Review, "we know nothing that would deny Jefferson the principal credit" for writing the Declaration.

Maier teamed with three other historians to write Inventing America: A History of the United States. Taking the approach that America has always been a nation of innovation and creativity, the authors present the history of the United States as a series of creative ventures ranging from the invention of the electric light bulb to the idea of constitutional government. Among the new details provided by this focus on innovation is the reason why the American Civil War was so deadly—firearms had been built to be more accurate at a longer distance than ever before, but military strategy still called for soldiers to march in close ranks. "Reading Inventing America, looking at the nation's history through the powerful lens of ceaseless innovation, you see events falling into place in ways they never have before," according to Malcolm Jones in Newsweek. Alan Earls in the Christian Science Monitor had a similar response: "The additional focus on invention and inventiveness as an important element in the nation's history adds interest and vitality to a familiar story. Indeed, this is probably a new dimension that most readers have not considered much before."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

American Archivist, spring, 2001, review of American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, p. 159.

American Historical Review, October, 1981, review of The Old Revolutionaries: Political Lives in the Age of Samuel Adams, p. 916; April, 1999, review of American Scripture, p. 560.

Booklist, March 15, 1998, review of American Scripture, p. 1210.

BookPage, July, 1997, Roger Bishop, review of American Scripture.

Books and Culture, July, 1998, review of American Scripture, p. 18.

Books of the Times, December, 1980, review of The Old Revolutionaries, p. 585.

Book World, July 6, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 1; August 2, 1998, review of American Scripture, p. 12.

Boston Globe, October 27, 2002, Diana Muir, review of Inventing America: A History of the United States.

Choice, March, 1981, review of The Old Revolutionaries, p. 1013; November, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 549.

Christian Science Monitor, January 2, 2003, Alan Earls, review of Inventing America.

Contemporary Review, August, 1999, review of American Scripture, p. 107.

Curriculum Review, September, 1987, review of The American People, p. 50.

Economist, December 6, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 95.

Forbes, August 24, 1998, Steve Forbes, review of American Scripture, p. 32.

Historian, November, 1981, review of The Old Revolutionaries, p. 116.

Journal of American History, June, 1981, review of The Old Revolutionaries, p. 115.

Journal of Popular Culture, November, 2003, Amos St. Germain, review of Inventing America, p. 367.

Journal of Southern History, February, 1999, review of American Scripture, p. 151.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 1980, review of The Old Revolutionaries, p. 962; May 1, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 700.

Kliatt, November, 1998, review of American Scripture, p. 32.

LC Information Bulletin, August, 1997, John Martin, "American Scripture: Author Pauline Maier and the Declaration of Independence."

Library Journal, August, 1980, review of The Old Revolutionaries, p. 1630; June 1, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 114.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, August 10, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 8.

MIT News, May 28, 1998, "MIT Historian Pauline Maier, Author of American Scripture, Wins Coveted Faculty Award."

MPLS-St. Paul Magazine, November, 1997, Bonnie Blodgett, "Declarations under Glass," p. 62.

National Review, September 15, 1997, R. S. Hill, review of American Scripture, p. 76.

New England Quarterly, March, 1998, review of American Scripture, p. 136.

New Leader, September 22, 1997, Milton R. Konvitz, review of American Scripture, p. 18.

New Republic, June 30, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 34.

Newsweek, January 20, 2003, Malcolm Jones, review of Inventing America.

New Yorker, January 12, 1981, review of The Old Revolutionaries, p. 101; September 15, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 87.

New York Review of Books, August 14, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 37.

New York Times Book Review, October 12, 1980, review of The Old Revolutionaries, p. 12; July 6, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 9; December 7, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 12; July 5, 1998, review of American Scripture, p. 20; December 6, 1998, review of American Scripture, p. 96; September 15, 2002, Sylvia Nasar, review of Inventing America, p. 17.

Political Science Quarterly, summer, 1981, review of The Old Revolutionaries, p. 353.

Publishers Weekly, August 15, 1980, review of The Old Revolutionaries, p. 46; June 2, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 59.

Reference and User Services Quarterly, spring, 1998, review of American Scripture, p. 274.

Review of Politics, spring, 1998, Michael Zuckert, review of American Scripture, p. 355.

Reviews in American History, September, 1981, review of The Old Revolutionaries, p. 330.

San Francisco Chronicle, June 29, 1997, Michael J. Ybarra, review of American Scripture, p. 5.

Sewanee Review, July, 1998, review of American Scripture, p. 505.

Times Literary Supplement, February 27, 1998, review of American Scripture, p. 28.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), August 10, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 4.

Voice of Youth Advocates, October, 1998, review of American Scripture, p. 255.

William and Mary Quarterly, July, 1982, review of The Old Revolutionaries, p. 557; July, 1998, review of American Scripture, p. 463.

World and I, November, 1997, review of American Scripture, p. 268.*