Hoffman, Paul E. 1943-

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Hoffman, Paul E. 1943-

PERSONAL:

Born April 3, 1943. Education: Florida Presbyterian College (now Eckerd College), B.A., 1964; University of Florida, M.A., 1965, Ph.D., 1969.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, 224 Himes Hall, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, professor of history and Paul W. and Nancy W. Murrill Distinguished Professor.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Francis Parkman Prize, Society of American Historians, 1991, for A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient: The American Southeast during the Sixteenth Century; William H. Kadel Career Achievement Award, Eckerd College, 1993; Gulf South History Book Award, Gulf South Historical Association, 2002, for Florida's Frontiers; Mellon senior fellow, John Carter Brown Library, 2005.

WRITINGS:

The Spanish Crown and the Defense of the Caribbean, 1535-1585: Precedent, Patrimonialism, and Royal Parsimony, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1980.

Spain and the Roanoke Voyages (booklet), America's Four Hundredth Anniversary Committee, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources (Raleigh, NC), 1987.

A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient: The American Southeast during the Sixteenth Century, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1990, revised edition, 2004.

(Translator) Charles M. Hudson, The Juan Pardo Expeditions: Explorations of the Carolinas and Tennessee, 1566-1568, Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, DC), 1990, University of Alabama Press (Tuscaloosa, AL), 2005.

Luisiana (Spanish language history of Spanish Louisiana), Editorial MAPFRE (Madrid, Spain), 1992.

(With Charles E. Pearson) The Last Voyage of El Nuevo Constante: The Wreck and Recovery of an Eighteenth-Century Spanish Ship off the Louisiana Coast, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1995.

A History of Louisiana before 1813, Louisiana State University Bookstore (Baton Rouge, LA), 1996.

(Compiler, with Charles E. Pearson) El Nuevo Constante: Investigation of an Eighteenth Century Spanish Shipwreck off the Louisiana Coast (booklet; second edition), Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, Louisiana Archaeological Survey and Antiquities Commission (Baton Rouge, LA), 1998.

Florida's Frontiers, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 2002.

(Editor) The Louisiana Purchase and Its Peoples: Perspectives from the New Orleans Conference, Louisiana Historical Association and Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Louisiana (Lafayette, LA), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Paul W. and Nancy W. Murrill Professor of History Paul E. Hoffman has taught courses at Louisiana State University that include "Western Civilization since 1500," "Spain since 1469," "Louisiana to 1815," "The Caribbean, 1492-Present," "Mexico: The Colonial Period," as well as a "Reading Seminar in Latin American History," "Reading Seminar in Early Modern Europe," and "Research Seminar, European History." Hoffman's research interests include the history of Louisiana State University.

A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient: The American Southeast during the Sixteenth Century is Hoffman's study of speculation and exploration by Spain and France in search of the riches of North America and a waterway to the Pacific. The latter was the hope of Giovanni de Verrazano, sponsored by the French crown, while the new Andalucia of the title was the dream of Spanish explorer Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, who, in the early 1520s, sought the legendary land of Chicora at the approximate latitude of Andalucia in southern Spain, which was about thirty-two degrees north. In the first two sections, Hoffman documents the speculations and the journeys, while in the last he writes of the competition between Spain and France and the entry of England into the mix. He draws on maps and ship logs to follow the history.

Historian reviewer Magali M. Carrera concluded that "the text is clear and well written. Historians and specialists in archaeology, geography, and anthropology will benefit from a clear understanding of the Spanish and French visions for developing their American possessions."

Hoffman is the author, with Charles E. Pearson, of The Last Voyage of El Nuevo Constante: The Wreck and Recovery of an Eighteenth-Century Spanish Ship off the Louisiana Coast. The ship was one of a fleet of ships that set sail in August, 1776. The ship was wrecked during a hurricane, and what remained washed up off shore on the coast of southwestern Louisiana. A great deal of archaeological data was collected from the wreck, and Hoffman and Pearson use it to recreate the shipbuilding industry of Spain and that country's trade with the United States. They also include a list of cargo, the ship's bill of sale, and a description of the salvage operation and the artifacts recovered. Reviewing the book in Booklist, Alice Joyce described it as a "richly detailed account."

Approximately two centuries of history are treated in Florida's Frontiers, as Hoffman studies the explorers who brought settlement to what is now Florida, with emphasis on the early Spanish who preferred to remain there rather than go further north, and the British in their settlement, like the Spanish, around St. Augustine, half a century later. Hoffman notes that the Spanish were less concerned with becoming self-sufficient in food production than they were in maintaining a strong defense, and that the English were more successful, using African slaves to grow rice, cotton, and valuable exports such as indigo. The Spanish regained the region in the later 1700s, again using it as a military post and base for shipping. Carole Watterson Troxler reviewed Florida's Frontiers in the Journal of Southern History, noting: "Its discrete chapters offer practical access to the various Floridas that existed from 1562 to 1860 by approaching them in segments of generally twenty to forty years each. In addition, the book is especially valuable as a reference to Florida during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries."

For The Juan Pardo Expeditions: Explorations of the Carolinas and Tennessee, 1566-1568, by Charles M. Hudson, Hoffman transcribed, translated, and annotated documents from the expeditions that provide an account of Native Americans by the early Spanish explorer. The papers reveal the political, hierarchical, and social structures and other information about Native groups previously studied only through archaeological evidence. This revised edition demonstrates the accuracy of Hudson's route reconstructions by providing new evidence of Fort San Juan, the earliest known site of interaction between Native Americans and Europeans.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, October, 1991, Gilbert C. Din, review of A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient: The American Southeast during the Sixteenth Century, p. 1330; February, 2003, review of Florida's Frontiers, p. 183.

Americas, January, 1982, review of The Spanish Crown and the Defense of the Caribbean, 1535-1585: Precedent, Patrimonialism, and Royal Parsimony, p. 415; October, 1991, John H. Hann, review of A New Andalucia and a Way to the Ori-ent, p. 293; April, 1996, Lawrence A. Clayton, review of The Last Voyage of El Nuevo Constante: The Wreck and Recovery of an Eighteenth-Century Spanish Ship off the Louisiana Coast, p. 561; January, 2003, Richmond F. Brown, review of Florida's Frontiers, p. 423.

Booklist, February 1, 1995, Alice Joyce, review of The Last Voyage of El Nuevo Constante, p. 989.

Choice, October, 1995, J.A. Lewis, review of The Last Voyage of El Nuevo Constante, p. 358; October, 2002, J.H. O'Donnell, review of Florida's Frontiers, p. 342.

Hispanic American Historical Review, May, 1991, Jerald T. Milanich, review of The Juan Pardo Expeditions: Explorations of the Carolinas and Tennessee, 1566-1568, p. 380; November, 1992, Kathleen Deagan, review of A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient, p. 623; August, 1996, James Gregory Cusick, review of The Last Voyage of El Nuevo Constante, p. 569; February, 2004, Oakah L. Jones, review of Florida's Frontiers, p. 134.

Historian, spring, 2006, Magali M. Carrera, review of A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient, p. 143.

Journal of American History, September, 1991, Amy Turner Bushnell, review of A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient, p. 631; March, 2003, John T. McGrath, review of Florida's Frontiers, p. 1522.

Journal of Southern History, February, 1988, review of Spain and the Roanoke Voyages, p. 154; August, 1992, Patricia Galloway, review of A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient, p. 504; August, 1996, Gilbert C. Din, review of The Last Voyage of El Nuevo Constante, p. 560; November, 2003, Carole Watterson Troxler, review of Florida's Frontiers, p. 862.

Library Journal, February 15, 1995, John Kenny, review of The Last Voyage of El Nuevo Constante, p. 169.

Renaissance Quarterly, spring, 1992, Carla Rahn Phillips, review of A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient, p. 147.

Reviews in American History, March, 1992, Peter H. Wood, review of A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient, p. 8.

Sixteenth Century Journal, spring, 1989, Charles L. Cohen, review of Spain and the Roanoke Voyages, p. 116.

Southwestern Historical Quarterly, April, 1996, Robert S. Weddle, review of The Last Voyage of El Nuevo Constante, p. 584.

William and Mary Quarterly, July, 2003, Amy Turner Bushnell, review of Florida's Frontiers, p. 643.