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Benjamin Schaffer

Title: Instructor
Department: Department of History
College of Arts and Sciences
Email: schaffb@mailbox.sc.edu
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Biography: 

I'm a historian of early American history, with a special focus on maritime conflict and society in the British Atlantic world of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I have a Ph.D. In early American/Atlantic-world history from the University of New Hampshire (2021). My doctoral research inspired my first book (which is set to be published in early 2025 with the University of Alabama Press): The First Fleets: Colonial Navies of the British Atlantic World, 1630-1775.This work investigates how Anglo-American naval efforts against European, piratical, and Indigenous maritime threats informed the development of the American naval tradition on the eve of the American Revolution. Over all, my research is not limited to traditional military history studies alone, but considers the wider connections between maritime conflict and larger socio-political issues in the Atlantic world including diplomacy, slavery, the economy, etc. 

In addition to this book, I have published work (or have articles in-press) at The Northern Mariner and The South Carolina Historical Magazine. I also regularly present research at conferences such as the McMullen Naval History Conference at the United States Naval Academy, the North American Society for Oceanic History, and many others.

Activities

Outside of finalizing edits for my current book, I am actively conducting research for a 'follow-up' book which explores the intersections between maritime conflict and society in the American South during the Revolutionary War. With the ongoing 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution now upon us, I also actively assist various state-wide historical committees with research, living history programs, and public outreach


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