The State as Master: Gender, State Formation and Commercialisation in Urban Sweden, 16501780
By (Author) Maria Agren
Manchester University Press
Manchester University Press
22nd August 2017
United Kingdom
Hardback
184
Width 138mm, Height 216mm
We tend to think of state service as the typical male form of work. However, this notion does not do justice to the early history of states and their servants, and it obscures the role of women and gender entirely. Teasing out these entanglements, The state as master shows how early modern state formation was subsidized by ordinary people's work and how, at the same time, the changing relationship between state authorities and families shaped the understanding of work and gender. This book is both a fascinating story of the hardships of customs official families in small Swedish towns and an innovative analysis of state formation and its short- and long-term effects. -- .
Maria gren is Professor of History at Uppsala University, Sweden