Early American history and legal history

Professor, Distinguished Research Professor
Ph.D. Harvard 1970

Office: 317 LeConte
Office Hours: M-TR 9:00-10:00
Phone: (706) 542-2519

pchoffer@uga.edu

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Hoffer's most recent work includes Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, and Fraud in the Writing of American History(PublicAffairs, 2004); Seven Fires: The Urban Infernos that Reshaped American History (PublicAfairs, 2006); The Brave New World: A History of Early America (Johns Hopkins, 2007); The Supreme Court: An Essential History (Kansas, 2007); The Treason Trials of Aaron Burr (Kansas, 2008); and The Historian's Paradox: A Philosophy of History for Our Times (NYU, 2008). His book length essay on the Stono Rebellion will appear from Oxford University Press in 2010. Hoffer has won the Choice "Outstanding Academic Title" award four times, in 1991, 1992, 2005, and 2008.

Research and Teaching Interests

Selected Publications

The Treason Trials of Aaron Burr (Kansas, 2008) [More Info]

The Supreme Court: An Essential History (Kansas, 2007) co-edited [More Info]

The Brave New World: A History of Early America (Hopkins, 2007) [More Info]

Seven Fires: The Urban Infernos that Reshaped America (PublicAffairs, 2006) [More Info]

Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, and Fraud in the Writing of American History (PublicAffairs, 2004)

The Great New York Conspiracy of 1741: Slavery, Crime, and Colonial Law (University Press of Kansas,, 2003) [More Info]

Sensory Worlds in Early America (Hopkins, 2003) [More Info]

The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History (University Press of Kansas, 1997) [More Info]

The Devil's Disciples: The Makers of the Salem Witchcraft Trials (Hopkins, 1996) [More Info]

Courses Taught

HIST2111H: U.S. History to 1865, Honors [Syllabus]

HIST3060: Colonial and Revolutionary America [Syllabus]

HIST3060: Colonial and Revolutionary America [Syllabus]

HIST4060: American Legal History [Syllabus]

HIST7001: Colloquium in North American History and United States History to 1865 [Syllabus]

HIST8860: Seminar in History [Syllabus]

Dissertations Supervised

Maysilles, Duncan, "Ducktown Smoke: Environment, Law, and the Supreme Court's First Air Pollution Case, 1832-1918" (2007)

Griffith-Hughes, Elisabeth, "The Mighty Experiment: The Transition from Slavery to Freedom in Jamaica" (2004)

Keeling, John Robert, "Planters and the Culture of Commerce in Antebellum Louisiana: The Case(s) of John Fitz Miller" (2003)

Moore, Peter N., "This World of Toil and Strife: Land, Labor, and the Making of an American Community, 1750-1805" (2001)

Ebel, Carol Sue, "First Men: Changing Patterns of Leadership on the Virginia and Georgia Frontiers, 1642-1815" (1996)

MA Theses Supervised

Safane, Aaron, "Personalities and Partisanship: How the Rehnquist Court Reached Its Civil Rights Decisions" (2007)

Wilson III, Charles Hooper, "Testators, beneficiaries, and bondservants" (2006)

Chua, Terence Seng Leng, ""Messing with the Mouse": Copyright, Parody, and the Countercultural Wars in Walt Disney v. The Air Pirates" (2005)

Fuller, Lisa Marie, ""To Obtain the Ends of Justice": Provost Courts in South Carolina, 1866-1868" (2001)

Hahn, Steven Christopher, ""A Miniature Arms Race: The Role of the Flintlock in Initiating Indian Dependency in the Colonial Southeastern United States, 1655-1730" (1995)

Breen, Daniel Lewis, "The Supreme Court of Georgia and It's Interpretation of the Statutes of Fraud 1870-1899." (1994)