This book highlights new historical research from Europe’s northern frontier, bringing ‘the people’ back into the discussion of state politics, presenting alternative views of political and social relations in the Nordic countries before industrialization.

PART IBringing the people back in 11 Repertoires of state building from below in the Nordic countries, c. 1500–1800 3KNUT DØRUM, MATS HALLENBERG & KIMMO KATAJALA2 The historical sociology of politics as the study of people, power, and agency 23MICHAEL BRADDICKPART IIThe war, riots, and protests 373 The ethics of rule and the pragmatics of resistance 39MALTE GRIESSE AND MIRIAM RÖNNQVIST4 Conflict, state formation and literacy 61MAGNE NJÅSTAD5 Statebreaking from below 76SARI NAUMAN6 Pride of the communes 91MARTIN NEUDING SKOOG7 Insurgents of the Oldenburg state in Torstenson war 1643–1645 107OLLI BÄCKSTRÖMPART IIIBringing order to the state from below 1258 Households and state-building in early modern Denmark 127NINA JAVETTE KOEFOED9 Policing the guilds 146JØRGEN MÜHRMANN-LUND10 How soldiers’ women built early modern states 162MARTIN ANDERSSONPART IVElites in state formation 18111 From state elite to regional elite 183ERIK OPSAHL12 An improvised empire 199KAARLE WIRTA13 The state conquers a feudal enclave 215JOAKIM SCHERPPART VFormation of the public sphere in the 18th century 23114 From subjects to rural citizens? 233ELLA VIITANIEMI15 Houses divided? 252TROND BJERKÅS16 Local space building as state building? 274JENNI MEROVUO17 Contested customs 292MAGNUS LINNARSSON18 Criticism of government in Norway c. 1770–1814 309KNUT DØRUMPART VIState building from below in perspective 32719 The people and the state 329MARJOLEIN ’t HART