Law and People in Colonial America » (2nd Edition)

Peter Charles Hoffer is Research Professor of History at the University of Georgia and the author of numerous books on early American law and history.

This revised edition of Law and People in Colonial America will incorporate recent scholarship and encompass American Indians, the French, and Spaniards as people who — on the fringes of English settlement — raised interesting questions. Among them: how in legal terms did the English deal with "marginal"societies; how does this posture help us to understand English law and the changes the New World forced upon it; and how did these people on the outside themselves view English law?

Library Journal

Hoffer attempts to add to our understanding of American legal history by examining how the American colonists transformed an existing body of British law into a truly unique American product. His themes are twofold: the reformist impulse coming to fruition in the revolutionary period of 1763-76; and the blurring of distinctions between public authority and justice that have remained controversial even to this date. So little readable American legal history is available. One exception is Lawrence Friedman's History of American Law (S. & S., 1986. 2d rev. ed.). Now we have Hoffer's small work. Although focusing on colonial America, the book is highly recommended to the reader seeking an understanding of the development of American law. See Morton Horwitz, below, for a broader perspective.-- Jerry E. Stephens, U.S. Court of Appeals Lib., Oklahoma City