Hodder is known for position on the Kansas-Nebraska Act, namely that the Act was offered by then Senator Stephen Douglas to ensure that the city of Chicago would serve as a railroad nexus of the North American continent. Professor Hodder’s Government of the People of Kansas (1895) caused controversy within the state regarding its record of the events preceding the American Civil War.
Hodder was introduced to the study of history just as several well-known practitioners in the field urged the profession to investigate the historical development of institutions at the state and local level. Hodder's first recorded research fell within this genre, "The City Government of Chicago," scheduled for publishing in the Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science but not included in the series addressing municipal government. The Chicago monograph was Hodder’s first evidence of future pursuits regarding the historical development of Chicago. His legacy to the field of American history was in the study of that city, especially in his later career.[1]