Scandinavia in the Age of Revolution: Nordic Political Cultures, 1740–1820

This volume is based on papers presented at two successive research workshops, and it constitutes an exciting venture by a group of Scandinavian historians into the kind of comparative history so appropriate for this region. The chapters represent research in progress, with the introduction to each part, as well as the General Introduction, providing the overall framework for the component parts. But it is also important to emphasize at this point that the concept of political culture in early modern Europe is itself under  construction. It is currently being extended even further, for example into the household (encompassing social relations between relatives and unrelated members of more complex households,or between men and women). As historians develop their research in these areas, different types of source material will be exploited in new ways. During the 18th century, traditional means of communication such as letters, collective petitions, and hand-written anonymous flysheets remained hugely important, but at the same time the rapid growth of print created unprecedented opportunities.
Several chapters in this volume indicate how print, and other types of source material, had a direct impact on political awareness at the time, even facilitating early attempts at cross-border understanding. The present volume is a modern response to this  Enlightenment search for analytical explanations, and it will help to map key areas where new research can take this process forward in ways that will be both methodologically
and historically informative.