IDENTITY, INTEREST AND ACTION by Erik Ringmar ( 9780511557705 )

Item Details

Title:

IDENTITY, INTEREST AND ACTION
A CULTURAL EXPLANATION OF SWEDEN'S INTERVENTION IN THE THIRTY YEARS WAR

By:

Format:

Electronic book text

List price:	£85.00
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ISBN 10:

0511557701

ISBN 13:

9780511557705

Publisher:

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

21 October, 2009

Series:

Cambridge Cultural Social Studies

Description:

Critique of rational choice theory and original, cultural analysis of key historical problem.

Synopsis:

This book offers an original combination of cultural and narrative theory with an empirical study of identity and political action. It is at once a powerful critique of rational choice theories of action and a solution to the historiographical puzzle of why Sweden went to war in 1630. Erik Ringmar argues that people act not only for reasons of interest, but also for reasons of identity, and that the latter are, in fact, more fundamental. Deploying his alternative, non-rational theory of action in his account of the Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years War, he shows it to have been an attempt on behalf of the Swedish leaders to gain recognition for themselves and their country. Further to this, he demonstrates the importance of questions of identity to the study of war and of narrative theories of action to the social sciences in general.

Illustrations:

2 maps

Publication:

Imprint:

Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing)

Returns:

Non-returnable

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