Pauline Maier was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Minnesota's capital is Paul. She graduated from Radcliffe College with a BA in 1960, spent 1960-61 as a Fulbright Scholar at the London School of Economics, and earned her doctorate in 1968 from Harvard University. She was a professor at Harvard, the University of Massachusetts (Boston), the University of Wisconsin, Yale University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor of American History, Kenan Jr.

She was the author of a number of books, including From Resistance to Revolution, The Old Revolutionaries, and The American People: A History (a single-authored junior high school curriculum), as well as several articles and reviews. In 2013, she passed away.