JIGSAW GENS

Golden Renegades — A Legacy of Enterprise & Ferocity

The Golden Renegades (“Gilded Experts” or “Red Shirts”) risked their lives to represent and industrialize American culture

Photo by Steven Beyer on Unsplash

Throughout 2023, I’ve been documenting the evolution of American generations through my “Jigsaw Gens” series. I started out by profiling the eight identified generational cohorts of the past 150 years (Hemingrebels, GI-Gens, Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, GenXers, Millennials, Zoomers, and Alphas).

Currently, as part of this desire for intergenerational literacy, I’m researching the previous century of historical peer cohorts. So far, I’ve tracked the Missionary and Stowegressive generations.

So who came before the Stowegressives?

They would be those belonging to the generation whom I call the “Golden Renegades.”

Who They Are

Golden Renegades were born approximately between 1833 to 1844 — give or take a few years on either end. Based on the theory jointly constructed by historians William Strauss and Neil Howe, they overlap with the Strauss/Howe-designated Gilded cohort of “nomads” and “reactives” that spans 21 years. However, I’ve zeroed in on a 12-year cohort from the…