Previous research has deemed the secretary of the peasant estate in the Swedish Riksdag of the Age of Liberty an important figure. Yet, historians have not scrutinized the secretaries, their function, or their influence over the peasantry. This article examines the incumbents, their ability to guide the peasant estate and vice versa, and their political and bureaucratic function in the Age of Liberty. The results have bearing on discussions about the peasantry's political influence in the early modern era, on the significance of parties in the Age of Liberty, and on the relationship between bureaucracy and politics within the early modern Diet. The results show that most of the secretaries had ties to the Council of the Realm, with education in and experience of legal and administrative matters. Secretaries were meant to control the peasantry but cannot be exclusively understood as an instrument for oppression or a facilitator of political mobilization; they served both purposes at the same time, although the emphasis varied over time and between issues. The results thus emphasize the complexity of political interaction in early modern Sweden. Additionally, the changing function and role of the secretary was very much caused by party struggle. Parties are, therefore, key in understanding the peasantry's political influence and position in the Age of Liberty. Lastly, the article reveals a rapid bureaucratization of the peasantry's political activities from the 1750s onwards. The chancery expanded manifold and diversified its tasks. This process played an important role in the peasantry's political mobilization towards the end of the period but has previously been largely unacknowledged. Thus, the article's results contribute to a vast, important, but generally understudied research field. Bureaucratization and specialization processes in politics are not only of relevance for the study of the peasantry and the Age of Liberty, but for the study of political history in Sweden and the world at large.
The article studies commercial actors and advertisements in the Swedish weekly press in order to trace how transformed gender roles during the Second World War were handled and negotiated in the commercial sphere. Two key dimensions of consumer society constitute the objects of study: 1) the weekly press’ and advertising industry’s actions and promotion of the role of female consumers during the war; and 2) the commercial advertisements’ representation of female consumers. The weeklies studied, Svensk damtidning, Hemmets Veckotidning and Vecko-revyn, reached a national readership and were directed towards households and especially women. The article concludes that although women were described as essential to national defence by keeping up home front morale, the war was largely absent in the advertisements. Instead, the ads tended to remind consumers of peacetime affluence and family-based gender ideals. This meant that while many women’s everyday lives changed dramatically as a consequence of national wartime mobilization, their desires were commercially channelled just as they had been in peacetime: towards looking after their appearance, caring for the household and choosing the right consumer goods.
This article contributes to the research on how the earliest Swedish workers’ associations formed and controlled the poor and politically marginalized classes. Previous research on the fostering functions of organized labour has emphasized that it created a self-governing, reformist and conscientious working class. These studies have largely been based on the educational activities and ideological programs of the movements. This article shows that the workers’ organizations, in their first liberal phase, also shaped the behaviour of their members by establishing a system of sanctions. Thus, the essay focuses on a technique of moral regulation that was part of the everyday practice of organizational governance. The system of sanctions is treated and analysed as a disciplinary mechanism in a Foucauldian perspective, focusing on the type of subjects that the system formed and promoted. The first empirical section describes and analyses the basis of the system: the codes of conduct and its regulations. Drinking and disorderly behaviour in general were condemned, as was not being able to follow the right political protocols for being a good member of an association that was based on representative government. Furthermore, the system of sanctions created a relationship of power between the representatives and the majority of members. The former, mainly the governing board and the disciplinary corps, acted as fostering and policing authorities. The authorities were also in charge of deciding the penalties for members who were suspected of breaking the rules.
Sanctions came in the forms of warnings, fines and expulsions. An in-depth analysis of individual cases shows that immoral and disorderly conduct, inside as well as outside the organizations, was cause for exclusion. The article shows that the sanction system thus served certain political functions. The sanction system formed capable citizens with the knowledge needed to engage in collective organizational politics; and in the end, the knowledge required to take part in a liberal-capitalist society in development.
This article discusses the so-called verb-oriented method and its role in the research project Gender and Work in early modern Sweden (GaW), which is based at Uppsala University. It provides a presentation of the GaW-database, which has been designed to allow analysis according to the verb-method. Finally, the article points out that this method can be combined with a number of different theoretical approaches as long as the focus is on practices. It is therefore compatible with the approaches of e.g., Judith Butler, Michel de Certeau, and Amartya Sen. Work is defined as "time-use with the purpose of making a living" and the article discusses why data on time-use, or actual work activities, are better suited for research into early modern Swedish working life than other types of data. It shows that activities are usually described in the sources by verb-phrases, and explains how and from what sources verb-phrases are collected and analyzed within the project. In order to allow for generalizations the verb-method presupposes large amounts of data. This is the rationale for the GaW-database, which at present includes around 5000 verb-phrases and 75000 data posts.
This article investigates the power of national narratives and the lack of genuine efforts to come to terms with the past in Hungary and Romania. Hungary and Romania have experienced a common history marked by conflicts, changing borders, and totalitarian regimes. The two countries have not succeeded in overcoming issues in their common past. Instead, national narratives have been institutionalized in textbooks and among historians, even in the international context. Historians have narrated the nation's history under the strong influence of political agendas. This political force supports the hegemonic positions of the national narratives today. The national narratives are not only disseminated domestically, but are also reflected in articles about the two countries in encyclopedias abroad, such as the Swedish National Encyclopedia (Nationalencyklopedin). Romania has undertaken more efforts to come to terms with its past than Hungary has, in assuming responsibility for the Holocaust and investigating crimes against humanity during communism for example. Hungary's position on the Holocaust has been contradictory. On the one hand, Hungarian officials have admitted the Hungarian state's responsibility. However, on the other hand, leading historians appointed by the Hungarian government have explicitly claimed that Nazi-Germany alone was responsible for the Holocaust. The officially sanctioned responsibility assumed by the Hungarian and Romanian governments should be seen as sign of political correctness rather than genuine reconciliation. Politicians and historians in Hungary have together launched a campaign of historical revisionism, which is most visible with regard to the interwar and Second World War periods, in order to strengthen the national consciousness among its citizens. This campaign has reinforced the exclusive ethnic perspective of Hungary's history, and serves as a norm for present day politics. In both Hungary and Romania national narratives maintain a hegemonic position thanks to the support from politicians and some historians. This undermines reconciliation and accountability with regard to both the individual and the shared history of the two nations.
Probate inventories indicate that approximately 50 per cent of married workers in Swedish towns at the turn of the 20th century had financial assets and/or owned real estate. Although profligacy of course existed, workers in general seem to have been thrifty. Those without savings often had very low incomes and many dependents. Savings and the percentage of savers increased concurrently with rising real incomes and economic surpluses. Essential were also the introduction of new savings methods that led to a decreasing cost for saving. Most important were sickness and burial funds and endowment assurances. These collective solutions for saving were well suited to workers' needs and economic capacity, and workers quickly adapted their savings habits to the new conditions. In the case of endowments, there was even a tendency that they tried to save more than they could actually afford. The adaptation to new savings methods meant that there was a renewal of working-class saving over time. Individual savings, for example in banks, were successively replaced by collective savings. The latter totally dominated at the end of the period. The extent of the renewal varied among occupational groups and towns. Also notable was the variation between families with children and those without. The former prioritized life and endowment assurances, while the latter more often accumulated funds in bank accounts. There was also a renewal in saving motives. Precautionary saving dominated, but after the turn of the 20th century saving for old age and/or bequests became more common. However, accumulated funds were generally small and insufficient for full retirement in old age. The development of working-class saving in Sweden 1870-1914 shows many similarities with the development in Great Britain, although the former started later, and was faster and more compressed. An important explanation is that real wages rose more rapidly in Sweden than in Great Britain.
Producing foreign splendor in domestic workshops: The royal embroiderers at the court of King Gustav I Vasa of Sweden 1523-1560
A European Renaissance monarch was expected to live up to the standards of his peers. Dressed in rich apparel the regent aimed to create an image of magnificent kingship. In order to accommodate the need for opulent dress, it was necessary to have access to artisans working in different specialist trades. One such specialist trade was the embroiderers. This article investigates the work made in the Swedish royal embroidery workshop during the reign of King Gustav I (r. 1523-1560). Research questions focus on the production of embroidered dress. The number of artisans, their background and the organization of work are studied in relation to the clothes described in royal inventories and wardrobe accounts. The rise of a large royal embroidery workshop emerged gradually during the near 40 year-reign of Gustav I. The recruitment of foreign artisans, mainly from Germany and France, is seen in the growing numbers of embroiderers employed at court. The skills of these foreign artisans were passed on to Swedish apprentices in the workshop. By the time of the King's death, in 1560, more than ten embroiderers were employed on a full time basis. The workshop had then approached its peak in terms of size and would only increase slightly during the reign of Gustav's son Erik XIV. An overview of embroidered dress belonging to the members of the royal family 1539-1559 shows shifts in the use of different types of garments and embroidery techniques. The clothes described both in inventories and wardrobe accounts correspond to contemporary portraiture. This indicates that the Swedish royal embroidery workshop had capacity to supply the Vasa court with fashionable outfits. Furthermore, there is no evidence of imported garments having been more than a supplement to domestic production.
“They tormented us as if they wanted to kill us”: New light on Second World War Yugoslav camp prisoners in Norway
The article provides new insights into the violence suffered by the more than four thousand Yugoslavs who were deported to Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.Placed in labour camps throughout the country, they were made to work under extremely harsh conditions on projects such as road construction and military installations.
The analysis focuses on the prisoners’ experience of camp life. Particular attention is paid to their interaction with prison guards and to the political conflicts that emerged within the prisoner group. The findings of sociologist Nils Christie on the camp guards are juxtaposed against new sources from Belgrade, which became fully available to scholars in the early 2000s. These new sources show how the camp administrations exploited the terrible hygienic conditions, malnutrition and negative stereotypes about a violence-prone “Balkan culture” to create emotional distance between prisoners and guards. The prisoners complained that they were not given enough food or sufficient opportunity to maintain their hygiene, which they attributed to a conscious policy on the part of the camp administration. Lice infestations, outbreaks of typhus and malaria, combined with extrajudicial executions, not least of prisoners who fell ill, resulted in a death toll of over sixty percent for the Yugoslavs. The Yugoslavs thus suffered among the highest death tolls of any national or ethnic community relocated to Scandinavia during the war. The analysis further deals with prisoner escapes to Sweden, which were often made possible by help from Norwegian civilians. Such experiences contributed to the very positive image of Norway and Norwegians in the witness statements taken by the Yugoslav embassy in Stockholm. These statements also show that the prisoners had a very positive view of how they were treated by the authorities upon arrival in Sweden.