Private Property and the Origins of Nationalism in the United States and Norway

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Introduction: A Property Rights Perspective to the Study of Nationalism

   • Eirik Magnus Fuglestad

   Pages 1-29

3. Agrarian Moment: Land and Freedom

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 31-37

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   2. America: “Destined to Let Freedom Grow”

      • Eirik Magnus Fuglestad

      Pages 39-77

   3. Norway: “A Free Constitution … Was Centuries in the Making”

      • Eirik Magnus Fuglestad

      Pages 79-129

4. Industrial Moment: Land to Labour

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 131-132

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   2. The Industrial Moment in America—“Irrepressible Conflict”

      • Eirik Magnus Fuglestad

      Pages 133-168

   3. The Industrial Transformation in Norway—The Will of the People

      • Eirik Magnus Fuglestad

      Pages 169-193

5. Conclusions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 195-195

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   2. The Nation as a Propertied Community

      • Eirik Magnus Fuglestad

      Pages 197-217

6. Back Matter

   Pages 219-223

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In the eighteenth century, before a national political movement took hold in either the United States or Norway, both countries were agrarian societies marked by widespread private land ownership. Tracing the emergence and development of national ideology in each, Eirik Magnus Fuglestad argues that land ownership became tied up with these national ideologies and was ultimately a central driver of nationalism. In this book, the United States and Norway emerge as propertied communities, shaped by historical narratives of self-government and by property regimes that linked popular sovereignty with land ownership. Covering the mid-eighteenth century through industrialization in the nineteenth century, this book lays the groundwork for understanding the rise of nationalism as an agrarian, landed phenomenon, which later became the foundation of industrial society.

• Nationalism
• Nation building
• history of land ownership
• property rights
• national sovereignty
• industrial nationalism
• landed property
• American national movement
• American revolution
• Declaration of Independence
• American constitutional convention
• Norwegian National movement
• Prince Christian Frederik's entry to Norway
• Eidsvoll constitutional convention
• popular sovereignty
• national idealogy
• histrorical sociology

• Ruralis—Institute for Rural and Regional Research, Trondheim, Norway

  Eirik Magnus Fuglestad

Eirik Magnus Fuglestad completed his PhD at the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is currently employed at Ruralis – Institute for Rural and Regional Research, Norway.

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