Academics

Dr. Aaron J. Palmer (2005)
Associate Professor of History

Education

  • B.A., University of Wisconsin Oshkosh - History and English
  • M.A., Marquette University - History
  • M.A., Ph.D., Georgetown University - History

Biography

I have been teaching at WLC since 2005. Previously, I lived in Washington, D.C., for five years while attending graduate school at Georgetown and working at the American Studies Association. I am originally from Appleton, Wis., where I attended St. Matthew Lutheran School, Fox Valley Lutheran High School and Appleton West High School. I currently reside in Waukesha and am a member of Christ the Lord Lutheran Church in Brookfield. In my free time, I enjoy golfing, computers, movies, collecting books, reading, hiking and travel.

Research Interests

My general research interests involve the political history of the eighteenth-century British Empire, especially the southern colonies. More broadly, I am interested in the early modern Atlantic World, and generally teach and write from that perspective.

My dissertation is entitled "All Matters and Things Shall Center There: A Study of Elite Political Power in South Carolina, 1763-1776." In the future, I am potentially interested in working on projects involving British royal governors in the eighteenth century, the political thought of the founding fathers, and Lutherans during the American Revolution.

Courses I Teach

  • HIS 101 American History 1, 1492 – 1865
  • HIS 102 American History 2, 1866-1945
  • HIS 211 Modern Europe, 1850 - Present
  • HIS 322 French Revolution and Napoleon, 1789 - 1815
  • HIS 333 England: Reformation, Renaissance, and the Tudors, 1485-1603
  • HIS 334 Germany: Rise, Fall, and Reunification, 1850-Present
  • HIS 335 England: Wars, Revolution and Reform, 1603-1815
  • HIS 342 Colonial Latin America
  • HIS 355 Witchcraft and Culture in the Atlantic World
  • HIS 380 Colonial America, 1480-1763
  • HIS 381 Formation of the United States, 1765-1815

Membership in Professional Societies

  • American Historical Association
  • South Carolina Historical Society
  • Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture

Recent Publications

  • "An Extension of Power: Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, and Elite Rule in South Carolina on the Eve of the American Revolution," in The Journal of Early American History, vol. 1, no. 3 (December 2011).
  • "Plymouth Colony," in The Dictionary of American History ed. Stanley I. Kutler, 10 vols. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 2002.
  • "The Dominion of New England," in Ibid.
  • "Mayflower Compact," in Ibid.
  • "The United Colonies of New England," in Ibid.
  • "Suffolk Resolves," in Ibid.
  • "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death," in Ibid.
  • "Taxation Without Representation," in Ibid.
  • "Our Federal Union! It Must Be Preserved," in Ibid.
  • "Dorchester Company," in Ibid.
  • "Committees of Correspondence" in Britain and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, ed. William Kaufman. Oxford: ABC Clio, 2005.
  • "Quebec Act" in Ibid.
  • "Treaty of Versailles, 1783" in Ibid.
  • "Boston Port Act," in The Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War: A Political, Social, and Military History, ed. Gregory Fremont-Barnes and Richard Alan Ryerson. Oxford: ABC-Clio, 2006.
  • "Massachusetts Government Act," in Ibid.

Conference Papers

  • "An Extension of Power: Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, and Elite Rule in South Carolina on the Eve of the American Revolution." International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World, Harvard University, August 2010.
  • "Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor: Imperialist and Colonial Identity Among Governing Elites in South Carolina, Maryland, Barbados and Jamaica, 1763-1783," American Studies Association Annual Meeting, November 14-17, 2002, Houston, Texas.
  • "I Have Done More than You Deserved: The 1775 Duel Between Henry Laurens and John Faucheraud Grimke." Missouri Valley History Conference, March 2008, Omaha, Nebraska.
  • "Crimes of the Most Heinous Nature:  Crime and Punishment in South Carolina, 1763-1776." Missouri Valley History Conference, March 2010, Omaha, Nebraska.