The People of the Nordic World

The modern meaning of the term the people has developed at least three different meanings: as a political unity (demos), as a cultural entity (ethnos) and as a social entity (plethos). The concept became a battlefield with mixed and even opposing interests - and that is still the case. The people is a dynamic concept and can take many shapes. The future depends to a large extent on interpretations of it. This book focuses on some of the crucial struggles over the concept of the people in the past 175 years, and will look at its implications for state-building and nation-building in Denmark and the other Nordic countries.