acknowledgements

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Identity, Interest & Action

acknowledgements

Identity, Interest & Action: A Cultural Explanation of Sweden's Intervention in the Thirty Years War is my book about Sweden, the Thirty Years War and state formation in the 17th century. But above all it a book about state identity, how state identities are formed and the importance of recognition. Buy the paperback. It's cheaper.

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“Ringmar has written a book of history which is also path-breaking in historiographical methods and in social theory. Ringmar’s careful analysis of the personal, social and cultural circumstances leads us to understand why historians looked for an explanation in terms of interest, whereas the process of intervening in the war was rather to be seen as part of the process of identity formation of the new Swedish nation. The alternation of narrative and clear theoretical reasoning makes for a passionate reading.” Alessandro Pizzorno, European University Institute, Florence.

“Erik Ringmar has grasped a fundamental point that generations of historical analysts have usually missed: when state leaders intervene aggressively in world affairs, whatever material interests they might be advancing or defending they are always asserting claims to be consequential international actors. In the case of Sweden and the Thirty Years War, Ringmar presents that view convincingly and engagingly.” Charles Tilly, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University

"Ringmar's book is an outstanding illustration of a very imaginative historical analysis of the emergence of a modern state -- Sweden. The analysis combines the evaluation of ideological and cultural factors together with power ones, especially in relation to the new international political and ideological system which emerged after the Reformation. I see it as a very important contribution." S. N. Eisenstadt, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

"Why did Sweden to to war against the armies of the Habsburg emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 1630? An unlikely question, one might think, to generate an insightful indictment of utilitarian and rationalistic accounts of action. But that is what Erik

Ringmar has achieved in this book. Pursuing the poverty of orthodox explanations with vigour, the author patiently marshals evidence from disparate sources, interweaves his conceptual account with historical stories, and develops a convincing case for a narrative theory of action to comprehend the indispensability of identity, especially in the realm of international politics. In a world beset with identity conflicts, Ringmar's analysis has wide-ranging implications." David Campbell, Keele University.

Erik Ringmar

is Zhi Yuan Chair professor of International Relations at Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China PRC. He graduated with a PhD in political science from Yale University and for 12 years he taught courses in comparative politics in the Government Department at London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of 5 books and some 30 articles. He is a faculty fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University.

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acknowledgements

Details: Category: Identity, Interest & Action; Published on Thursday, 08 October 2009 21:41; Written by Erik; Hits: 144

This book discusses, among other things, how we go about making sense of the worlds in which we live. As I will argue, the senses we make are always made together with others. This conclusion, naturally, applies also to this book itself. The senses I make in the pages that follow were originally made in conversation with a number of colleagues and friends. I hereby acknowledge my intellectual debts to Jeffrey Alexander, Jens Bartelson, Ragnar Björk, Stefan Björklund, Walter Carlsnaes, Sverker Gustavsson, Michael Halberstam, Jörgen Hermansson, Èva Hoòs, Kurt Johannesson, Charles Lindblom, Veronica Muños Dardé, Sverker Oredsson, Alessandro Pizzorno, Diane Pranzo, Peter Rinderle, Bruce Russett, James Scott, Alexander Wendt and Björn Wittrock. I am particularly grateful to Jeff Alexander and to my teachers ― Alex Wendt and Jim Scott at Yale, Alessandro Pizzorno in Florence ― for recognising me as the kind of scholar which this study also introduces. Recognition, as we are about to see, is something for which we sometimes must be prepared to fight.

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