diff --git a/AUTHORS.rst b/AUTHORS.rst
index 6bbddfde..99639230 100644
--- a/AUTHORS.rst
+++ b/AUTHORS.rst
@@ -121,3 +121,4 @@ Patches and Suggestions
 - Vinod Chandru
 - Johnny Goodnow <j.goodnow29@gmail.com>
 - Denis Ryzhkov <denisr@denisr.com>
+- Wilfred Hughes <me@wilfred.me.uk> @dontYetKnow
diff --git a/requests/adapters.py b/requests/adapters.py
index 6f507da8..c38cd080 100644
--- a/requests/adapters.py
+++ b/requests/adapters.py
@@ -45,7 +45,6 @@ class BaseAdapter(object):
 class HTTPAdapter(BaseAdapter):
     """Built-In HTTP Adapter for Urllib3."""
     def __init__(self, pool_connections=DEFAULT_POOLSIZE, pool_maxsize=DEFAULT_POOLSIZE):
-        self.max_retries = DEFAULT_RETRIES
         self.config = {}
 
         super(HTTPAdapter, self).__init__()
@@ -166,7 +165,7 @@ class HTTPAdapter(BaseAdapter):
             request.headers['Proxy-Authorization'] = _basic_auth_str(username,
                                                                      password)
 
-    def send(self, request, stream=False, timeout=None, verify=True, cert=None, proxies=None):
+    def send(self, request, stream=False, timeout=None, max_retries=DEFAULT_RETRIES, verify=True, cert=None, proxies=None):
         """Sends PreparedRequest object. Returns Response object."""
 
         conn = self.get_connection(request.url, proxies)
@@ -188,7 +187,7 @@ class HTTPAdapter(BaseAdapter):
                     assert_same_host=False,
                     preload_content=False,
                     decode_content=False,
-                    retries=self.max_retries,
+                    retries=max_retries,
                     timeout=timeout
                 )
 
diff --git a/requests/api.py b/requests/api.py
index baf43dd6..d0023807 100644
--- a/requests/api.py
+++ b/requests/api.py
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ def request(method, url, **kwargs):
     :param files: (optional) Dictionary of 'name': file-like-objects (or {'name': ('filename', fileobj)}) for multipart encoding upload.
     :param auth: (optional) Auth tuple to enable Basic/Digest/Custom HTTP Auth.
     :param timeout: (optional) Float describing the timeout of the request.
+    :param max_retries: (optional) The maximum number of retries (defaults to 0).
     :param allow_redirects: (optional) Boolean. Set to True if POST/PUT/DELETE redirect following is allowed.
     :param proxies: (optional) Dictionary mapping protocol to the URL of the proxy.
     :param verify: (optional) if ``True``, the SSL cert will be verified. A CA_BUNDLE path can also be provided.
diff --git a/requests/sessions.py b/requests/sessions.py
index 615075a3..73862991 100644
--- a/requests/sessions.py
+++ b/requests/sessions.py
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ def merge_kwargs(local_kwarg, default_kwarg):
 
 class SessionRedirectMixin(object):
     def resolve_redirects(self, resp, req, stream=False, timeout=None,
-                          verify=True, cert=None, proxies=None):
+                          max_retries=0, verify=True, cert=None, proxies=None):
         """Receives a Response. Returns a generator of Responses."""
 
         i = 0
@@ -149,6 +149,7 @@ class SessionRedirectMixin(object):
                 prepared_request,
                 stream=stream,
                 timeout=timeout,
+                max_retries=max_retries,
                 verify=verify,
                 cert=cert,
                 proxies=proxies,
@@ -237,6 +238,7 @@ class Session(SessionRedirectMixin):
         files=None,
         auth=None,
         timeout=None,
+        max_retries=0,
         allow_redirects=True,
         proxies=None,
         hooks=None,
@@ -304,6 +306,7 @@ class Session(SessionRedirectMixin):
         send_kwargs = {
             'stream': stream,
             'timeout': timeout,
+            'max_retries': max_retries,
             'verify': verify,
             'cert': cert,
             'proxies': proxies,
@@ -399,6 +402,7 @@ class Session(SessionRedirectMixin):
         req = kwargs.pop('req', None)
         stream = kwargs.get('stream', False)
         timeout = kwargs.get('timeout')
+        max_retries = kwargs.get('max_retries')
         verify = kwargs.get('verify')
         cert = kwargs.get('cert')
         proxies = kwargs.get('proxies')
@@ -419,7 +423,8 @@ class Session(SessionRedirectMixin):
 
         # Redirect resolving generator.
         gen = self.resolve_redirects(r, request, stream=stream,
-                                     timeout=timeout, verify=verify, cert=cert,
+                                     timeout=timeout, max_retries=max_retries,
+                                     verify=verify, cert=cert,
                                      proxies=proxies)
 
         # Resolve redirects if allowed.
diff --git a/test_requests.py b/test_requests.py
index e12722d1..51719e67 100644
--- a/test_requests.py
+++ b/test_requests.py
@@ -354,5 +354,26 @@ class RequestsTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         r = requests.Request(url=HTTPBIN)
         self.assertRaises(ValueError, requests.Session().send, r)
 
+    def test_can_specify_retries(self):
+        # monkey patch urlopen
+        from requests.packages.urllib3.poolmanager import HTTPConnectionPool
+        old_urlopen = HTTPConnectionPool.urlopen
+
+        max_retries_used = []
+        def urlopen(*args, **kwargs):
+            """Save what value we used for retries each time we call urlopen."""
+            max_retries_used.append(kwargs.get('retries'))
+            return old_urlopen(*args, **kwargs)
+
+        HTTPConnectionPool.urlopen = urlopen
+
+        # do the request and check that max_retries was passed through
+        requests.get(httpbin('get'), max_retries=5)
+        self.assertEqual(max_retries_used, [5])
+
+        # undo monkey patch
+        HTTPConnectionPool.urlopen = old_urlopen
+        
+
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()