"The Rise of Little Big Norway" explores the unlikely rise of Norway from peripherality to today’s global steward with an enviable work-life balance, influential oil fund and Arctic front-row seat. Drawing on wide-ranging source material, John Ross’s original approach combines astute observation, thoughtful analysis and a flowing essay style, leavened with the comparative insight that only a seasoned observer of the region can bring. The book examines the settings, histories and niche elements that lend Norway its distinctiveness and differentiate it from its Nordic neighbors. It gives special attention to the northern and Arctic dimensions of Norwegian life and elaborates a connecting thematic thread, the mobility that once took Vikings across the Atlantic in open boats and makes today’s Norwegians the most-traveled people on the planet. The result is a carefully crafted general study of Norway, a country long overlooked in favor of its Nordic neighbors but now a quiet force in its own right and a touchstone for twenty-first century issues ranging from identity politics to the Arctic melt. This book fills a major gap in the literature on Norway and the Nordic region.

In his pathbreaking article "History and the Social Sciences: The Longue Durée," Fernand Braudel raised a call for the social sciences to overcome their disciplinary isolation from one another. Commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the article's publication, the contributors to this volume do not just acknowledge their debt to the past; they also bear witness to how the crisis Braudel recognized a half century ago is no less of a crisis today. The contributions included here, from scholars in history, sociology, and geography, reflect the spirit and practice of the intellectual agenda espoused by Braudel, coming together around the concept of the longue durée. Indeed, they are evidence of how the groundbreaking research originally championed by Braudel has been carried forward in world-systems analysis for a more socially relevant understanding of the planet and its future possibilities. The book concludes with a new translation of Braudel's original article by famed sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein.

The Netherlands, frequently but erroneously called Holland, is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. In the past few decades, it has been undergoing many transformations made possible by its dynamic and fast-moving political landscape. It has shifted from fierce nationalism toward a self-image of tolerance and permissiveness: the national identity and self-consciousness has slowly eroded through decolonization and immigration. Unfortunately, several murders of prominent, controversial politicians have started yet another shift away from tolerance, and economic stagnation has bred pessimism. Nonetheless, despite many trials and tribulations, there has been real progress, and the Dutch have perhaps done a better job of coming to terms with their limitations than many others in the world. The second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Netherlands contains more than 700 cross-referenced dictionary entries on individual topics spanning the Netherlands' political, economic, and social system along with short biographies on important figures who have shaped the Netherlands' history. Supplementing the entries are a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and a bibliography, making this a superb quick reference on the Netherlands.

Presents an overview of early modern Dutch history in global context, focusing on themes that resonate with current concerns.

Explores foreign seamen's employment in the British Royal Navy of the French Wars, and deconstructs the meanings of 'foreignness' itself.

Advocating a gender-inclusive approach to the history of work, this book both counts and accounts for women's as well as men's economic activity. Showcasing novel conceptual, methodological and empirical perspectives, it highlights the transformative potential of including women's work in wider assessments of continuity and change in economic performance. Focusing on the period of European history (1500-1800) that generated unprecedented growth in the northwest – which, in turn, was linked to the global redistribution of resources and upon which industrialisation depended – the book spans key arenas in which women produced change: households, care, agriculture, rural manufacture, urban markets, migration, and war. The analysis refutes the stubborn contention of mainstream economic history that we can generalise about economic performance by focusing solely on the work of adult men and demonstrates that women were active agents in the early modern economy rather than passively affected by changes wrought upon them.

Going beyond classical theoretical approaches, Intermarriage throughout History provides a rich and unique collection of twenty-five essays which shed light on various models of family formation through non-homogamic marriage, from an historical and multi-disciplinary perspective. The volume originated from an international conference held at Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj, Romania, in early summer 2013, with a large international participation drawn mostly from Europe, Russia, North and South America. The book also has its roots in the long academic tradition of family and demographic historical and ethnographic studies in Transylvania, where scholars have been particularly active in these fields during recent decades at the international level. Given the strong pressures towards endogamy, people in the past who had a ‘mixed’ marriage deserve researchers’ full attention. How did they overcome the obstacles put in their path by church, family, state and community? Can scholars disclose the reasons for their remarkable choice of partner? And what were the implications of their mixed marriage for their daily lives and those of their children? Mixed marriages offer a window on the tensions between societal norms and social control on the one hand, and individual variation and individual choice, or ‘agency’, on the other.

Until recently the impact of the Lutheran Reformation has been largely regarded in political and socio-economic terms, yet for most people it was not the abstract theological debates that had the greatest impact upon their lives, but what they saw in their parish churches every Sunday. This collection of essays provides a coherent and interdisciplinary investigation of the impact that the Lutheran Reformation had on the appearance, architecture and arrangement of early modern churches. Drawing upon recent research being undertaken by leading art historians and historians on Lutheran places of worship, the volume emphasises often surprising levels of continuity, reflecting the survival of Catholic fixtures, fittings and altarpieces, and exploring how these could be remodelled in order to conform with the tenets of Lutheran belief. The volume not only addresses Lutheran art but also the way in which the architecture of their churches reflected the importance of preaching and the administration of the sacraments. Furthermore the collection is committed to extending these discussions beyond a purely German context, and to look at churches not only within the Holy Roman Empire, but also in Scandinavia, the Baltic States as well as towns dominated by Saxon communities in areas such as in Hungary and Transylvania. By focusing on ecclesiastical 'material culture' the collection helps to place the art and architecture of Lutheran places of worship into the historical, political and theological context of early modern Europe.