| The Rolling Years | |
| Author: | Agnes Sligh Turnbull |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Publisher: | The Macmillan Company |
| Release Date: | 1936 |
| Media Type: | Print (hardback) |
| Pages: | 436 |
| Oclc: | 17316163 |
| Followed By: | Remember the End |
The Rolling Years is the first novel by the American writer Agnes Sligh Turnbull (1888–1982) and it is set in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, just east of Pittsburgh.
It is a family chronicle (1852–1910) of three generations of Scottish-American Presbyterians in rural Western Pennsylvania and their struggles to maintain their strict faith. The first generation is Daniel and Sarah McDowell, a farm couple. Sarah bears 12 children (of whom five survive) to her dour Calvinistic husband; her bitterness about her repeated, difficult confinements is effectively shown. The second generation is about their children, David and Jeannie. David moves to Pittsburgh where he becomes a judge. Jeannie marries a minister who has been serving as the local school teacher to earn money to complete his education. Jeannie's daughter, Constance, represents the third generation. She becomes a school teacher and struggles to find her place in a changing world. The novel dramatizes the gradual weakening of the strict Calvinism of the Scottish immigrants in an increasingly secular society.