Political Histories

Publikation: Bidrag til bog/antologi/rapportBidrag til bog/antologiForskningpeer review

Abstract

Pufendorf is mainly remembered as a natural law philosopher but he was also an influential historian and a public intellectual. Apart from an early phase where his historical interests followed a conventional antiquarian course he focused on recent or contemporary history as evidenced by his popular and much translated, adapted and imitated European History (1680), his acerbic pamphlet History of Popedom (1679), and the monumental ex officio treatments of recent history of Sweden and Brandenburg: History of Gustavus Adolphus and Christina (1686), History of Charles Gustavus (1696) and History of Frederick William (1695). Pufendorf's historical works are informed by a clear and simple vision of states as unified agents acting within a framework of real (moderate) and imaginary (unrealistic), permanent (geopolitical) and temporary (contingent) interests. He combined this vision, informed by his natural law theory, with an abiding interest in diplomacy and decision making and a corresponding disregard for the concrete political players and the action on the battlefield. As royal Swedish and later electoral Brandenburg historiographer he had privileged access to archival sources. He used this to bolster his authority but also to present a firmly streamlined and occasionally biased account in harmony with his religious and political loyalties.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TitelThe Cambridge Companion to Pufendorf
RedaktørerKnud Haakonssen, Ian Hunter
Antal sider34
ForlagCambridge University Press
Publikationsdato2023
Sider328-361
Kapitel13
ISBN (Trykt)9781108472692
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2023

Emneord

  • Det Humanistiske Fakultet
  • naturret
  • historie
  • Samuel Pufendorf
  • Pufendorf
  • historiografi
  • Sverige
  • Brandenborg
  • Lund

Citationsformater