New in: “Medieval and Modern Civil Wars: A Comparative Perspective”

Most medieval historians have explained the ‘civil wars’ in Scandinavia in the 12th and 13th centuries as internal conflicts within a predominantly national and implicitly state-centered politico-constitutional framework. This book argues that the conflicts during this period should be viewed as less disruptive, less internal and less state-centered than in previous research. It does so through six articles comparing the civil wars in Scandinavia with civil wars in Afghanistan and Guinea-Bissau in the last decades, applying theories and perspectives from anthropology and political science. Finally, four articles discuss civil wars in a broader perspective.

CONTENTS:

Constant Crisis — Hans Jacob Orning and Henrik Vigh

Who Is the Enemy? Multipolar Micropolitics — Jón Viðar Sigurðsson and Henrik Vigh

Sverris Saga: A Manifesto for a New Political Order — Hans Jacob Orning and Frederik Rosén

The War, and What Is Mine: Private Ownership in the Civil Wars in Norway and Denmark in the High Middle Ages — Frederik Rosén and Helle Vogt

The Contingent State between Ideal and Practice — Ebrahim Afsah and Jenny Benham

Peace: How to Stop Fighting, Win Friends, and Influence People — Ebrahim Afsah and Jón Viðar Sigurðsson

Re-thinking “Rebellion” and “Civil War” in Medieval England: The War of the Son against the Father (1173–74) — Stephen D. White

The Formation of Trust: On the History of an Elementary Category of Peacebuilding — Gerd Althoff

The Rise and Fall of the Leviathan: A Juxtaposition of Pre-state and Post-state Wars — Øyvind Østerud

Reflections on the Political Theology of Conflict: From Medieval Scandinavia to the Global Future — John Comaroff