A Quantitative Approach to Book-Printing in Sweden and Finland, 1640–1828

Several cities in Sweden have been providing book-printing facilities since the 1640s. In our quantitative and explorative analysis of library catalogs from the National Library of Sweden and the National Library of Finland we identify the general trends in publishing, how book-printing has been affected by political events, and how printing developed at different paces in different parts of the realm. We have developed a new method for analyzing the totality of publishing through extensive data harmonization and comprehensive statistical analysis, and by treating library catalogs not as an endpoint of bibliographic research but as an inherently rich source of information. This facilitated the quantitative assessment of printing in the Swedish realm based on the metadata contained in library catalogs. Our data-driven approach to the transformation of public discourse demonstrates that whereas the amount of printed material grew steadily, political ruptures affected the development of printing. We also suggest that the culture of books and printing is best understood through the dynamics of competing intellectual hubs consisting of the university cities and the political center in Stockholm. This perspective further challenges the dominant, nationally delineated approach in book history.     

Bishops and Professionalization in Sweden,c. 1780–1880

This article investigates the concept of professionalization in terms of the bishops' role in the 19th-century Church of Sweden. Previous research has generally claimed that from the late 18th century until the mid-19th century, before the abolition of the Diet of Estates, the Swedish bishops amounted to secularized, conservative state officials who lacked the ability to effect religious reform. In this article, however, it will be argued that in the early 19th century, several decades earlier than previously assumed, the Swedish episcopate had begun to undergo a slow transformation that is best described as professionalization. It is posited that the bishops, inspired by Evangelical revival and Romanticism, became increasingly specialized in religion and theology in their education, thinking and practice. The episcopal profile also changed as the middle classes gained more influence from the early 19th century onwards, and this, in turn, prompted a higher standard of role performance.     

Political economy and social legislation in Germany,ca 1870–1890

Summary

This article examines the nature of academic political theory in Britain in the post-war period, examining in particular the degree to which theorists were able to mount normative theoretical arguments. Traditionally, commentators such as Brian Barry and Perry Anderson have argued that political theory in this period was largely dead between 1945 and 1970 due to the impact of positivism, but I argue this is mistaken for two main reasons. First, it fails to distinguish between the different forms that positivism took in the post-war era. Thus although it is true many theorists tended to claim that moral and political values could (or should) not be discussed rationally, their reasons for doing so varied considerably. For while theorists such as A. J. Ayer and T. D. Weldon justified their positions theoretically, with arguments drawn from behaviourist social science or innovations made in linguistic philosophy, others, such as Ralf Dahrendorf and Anthony Crosland, argued that it was the perceived success of post-war welfare states or the alleged failure of political ideologies that made traditional political theory irrelevant. Second, following on from this, I argue that delineating more accurately how positivism actually operated helps to explain how political theorists were able to pursue their discipline normatively—albeit that few reacted to all aspects of positivism. Thus if some (such as Karl Popper) were more concerned to insist that political philosophy had something to say in practice, others (such as Michael Oakeshott), reacted more strongly against the proposition that human behaviour can be understood purely causally. Finally, I examine the impact of ordinary language philosophy on post-war political theory, and argue that rather than simply damaging the cause of normative political theory by encouraging a myopic concentration on the linguistic analysis of particular moral and political concepts, over the longer term its effects were much more positive, since it helped to focus attention on the irreducibly normative dimension of political concepts.     

The Tannenberg myth in history and literature, 1914–1945

ABSTRACT

The Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914 has been described as the ‘most powerful German myth’ of the First World War. This essay analyses the role of the battle in German collective memory up to the end of the Third Reich. During the war, the victory in East Prussia was celebrated widely and greatly contributed to the personality cult surrounding Paul von Hindenburg. After 1918, Tannenberg served right-wing circles as a political argument against the post-war order, evoked to underscore the notion of German victimhood against Slav ‘encirclement’, the ‘war guilt lie’ and the territorial provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. However, it never really captured the attention or imagination of writers and artists. Linked primarily to national-conservative groups and ideals, Tannenberg was also of no major significance in National Socialist propaganda.     

Domestic Secrets: women and property in Sweden, 1600–1857

This article explores and analyses narratives in social report-books in the context of structural rationalization during the 1960s and 1970s in Sweden, which entailed large movements of people both in Sweden and Finland (as it did in other countries of Western Europe). The characteristics of the report-books are that they claim to depict the truth and to give voices to marginalized people with the aim to contribute to social change. The analysis dwells not only on the content of the books, but also on the narrative techniques employed. It is discussed how the authors were tied to their political context and the general discourse of social critique in their rendering of voices. The main questions of this article are: whose voices were paid attention to and how was home narrated and represented?

One kind of narrative content links home attachment to roots in a rural context, where home centres on reproduction of families, territorial claims and nature hugging. It is established through rhetoric of nature and timelessness, fathers passing inheritance on to their sons and a desire for a non-alienated existence in an archaic landscape. The narrative techniques used are based on an invisible narrator and on a travel narration with questions and answers. It is mainly male voices that are paid attention to. Female voices are to some extent heard but marginalized. Female bodily practices and habits are connected to positions as wives and daughters. The fisherman, the hunter, the woodlander and the farmer, are (re)presented as threatened male positions and therefore male bodies will in a near future be out of place. These narratives are framed by a patriarchal discourse where bodies are naturalized and made straight.

Quite another kind of narrative content is forward-looking, dealing with voices in a suburban context. The montage as a narrative technique is systematically used there, combining text and image. The didactic montage is intended to be educational, to enlighten people with the aid of pointers. This calls for activity on the part of the reader/observer, who is supposed to be given the impression of having interpreted the meanings independently. It is based on consciousness-raising as a feminist method for change. This narrative of home is about societal participation and resenting and resisting patriarchal distinctions such as public/private. It is framed by a feminist discourse where bodies are denaturalized and orientated at finding space for the displaced body to expand.     

Jan Evangelista Purkyně (1787–1869) and his instruments for microscopic research in the field of neuroscience

The findings obtained by the famous nineteenth-century Czech scientist Jan Evangelista Purkyně (1787–1869) in the field of microscopic structure of animal and human tissues, including the brain, spinal cord, and nerves, have already been described in depth in a number of older and newer publications. The present article contains an overview of the instruments and tools that Purkyně and his assistants used for microscopic research of tissue histology. Some of these instruments were developed either by Purkyně alone, such as the microtomic compressor, or together with his assistant Adolph Oschatz, such as the microtome. A brief overview of the development of the cutting engines suggests that the first microtome, a prototype of modern sliding microtomes, was designed and constructed under the supervision of Purkyně at the Institute of Physiology in Wroc?aw. Purkyně and his assistants, thus, not only obtained important findings of animal and human nervous and other tissues but also substantially contributed to the development of instruments and tools for their study, a fact often forgotten today.