Table of Contents

PART I

Bringing the people back in 1

1 Repertoires of state building from below in the Nordic countries, c. 1500–1800 3

KNUT DØRUM, MATS HALLENBERG & KIMMO KATAJALA

2 The historical sociology of politics as the study of people, power, and agency 23

MICHAEL BRADDICK

PART II

The war, riots, and protests 37

3 The ethics of rule and the pragmatics of resistance 39

MALTE GRIESSE AND MIRIAM RÖNNQVIST

4 Conflict, state formation and literacy 61

MAGNE NJÅSTAD

5 Statebreaking from below 76

SARI NAUMAN

6 Pride of the communes 91

MARTIN NEUDING SKOOG

7 Insurgents of the Oldenburg state in Torstenson war 1643–1645 107

OLLI BÄCKSTRÖM

PART III

Bringing order to the state from below 125

8 Households and state-building in early modern Denmark 127

NINA JAVETTE KOEFOED

9 Policing the guilds 146

JØRGEN MÜHRMANN-LUND

10 How soldiers’ women built early modern states 162

MARTIN ANDERSSON

PART IV

Elites in state formation 181

11 From state elite to regional elite 183

ERIK OPSAHL

12 An improvised empire 199

KAARLE WIRTA

13 The state conquers a feudal enclave 215

JOAKIM SCHERP

PART V

Formation of the public sphere in the 18th century 231

14 From subjects to rural citizens? 233

ELLA VIITANIEMI

15 Houses divided? 252

TROND BJERKÅS

16 Local space building as state building? 274

JENNI MEROVUO

17 Contested customs 292

MAGNUS LINNARSSON

18 Criticism of government in Norway c. 1770–1814 309

KNUT DØRUM

PART VI

State building from below in perspective 327

19 The people and the state 329

MARJOLEIN ’t HART

About the Author

Knut Dørum is a Professor of History at the University of Agder and at the University of Bergen in Norway. His recent research interests touch upon political and social history from below in the period c. 1750–2018. He has published extensively nationally and internationally on urban history, political culture, democratisation, state building, and female entrepreneurship.

Mats Hallenberg is a Professor of History at Stockholm University. He has studied political conflicts over public services in Stockholm, as well as state formation and peasant protest in early modern Sweden and Finland. He is currently working on a comparative study of regime shifts c. 1500–1800 and their long-time effects on Swedish politics.

Kimmo Katajala is a Professor of History at the Department of Geographical and Historical Studies, University of Eastern Finland. The main topics in his publications are social disturbances, history of borders, cartography, and state building in the early modern period. In his ongoing projects, he is studying the history in cartography and historical memory.