The kinetics of the aqueous polymerizations of acrylamide and methacrylamide employing the cerium(IV) ammonium nitrate-sorbose redox pair under an inert atmosphere were studied. It was found that the rate of monomer disappearance is directly proportional to the concentration of sorbose and inversely proportional to the cerium(IV) ion concentration but depends on the square of the monomer concentration. The rate of cerium(IV) ion disappearance is directly proportional to the initial concentration of cerium(IV) ion and sorbose but independent of the monomer concentration. The effects of various additives, namely alcohols, inorganic salts and so on, on the rates of polymerization of acrylamide and methacrylamide were also studied. The viscometric average molecular weight M ̄ v decreases on increasing the concentration of monomer and sorbose. A plausible mechanism based on experimental results is proposed.