Richard Godbeer

Richard Godbeer is the Charles W. Battey Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Kansas, where his research focuses on witchcraft, religious culture, gender, and sexuality in colonial and revolutionary North America. He is he author of six books, including The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England; Sexual Revolution in Early America; Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692; The Salem Witch Hunt: A Brief History with Documents; and World of Trouble: A Philadelphia Quaker Family's Journey Through the American Revolution, which was a finalist for the 2020 George Washington Book Prize.

Godbeer received his B.A. from Oxford University in 1984 and his Ph.D from Brandeis University in 1989. He taught in the Department of History at the University of California, Riverside, from 1989 to 2004 and in the Department of History at the University of Miami from 2004 to 2014; he served as founding Director of the Humanities Research Center at Virginia Commonwealth University from 2014 to 2019.

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Richard

Godbeer

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In A World of Trouble, Fall 2020 George Washington Prize | Vol. 65, No. 8

The British are often cast as the tyrannical power in the Revolutionary War. But American patriots could also be ruthless in demanding fealty to their cause, as many Quaker families learned while attempting to remain neutral.

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