Det danske imperium: storhed og fald

by Michael Bregnsbo, Kurt Villads Jensen

Hvordan er det egentlig gået til, at en europæisk stormagt som Danmark med besiddelser over hele verden - Vestindien, England, Island, Grønland, Afrika, Indien m.fl. - er endt som ubetydelig småstat?

Efter det katastrofale nederlag ved Dybbøl Banke i 1864 lukkede dansk historieskrivning sig om sig selv og blev stærkt nationalt selvcentreret. Siden er dansk historie blevet forstået ud fra det grundperspektiv, at Danmark var et lille og ubetydeligt land i den europæiske periferi, presset af den stærke tyske nabo, og at dansk historie handlede om det, der skete indenfor det nuværende Danmarks grænser.

Dette traditionelle synspunkt bliver i denne udfordret af historikerne Kurt Villads Jensen og Michael Bregnsbo.

Genres: History, European History, Nonfiction

248 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Esben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very fascinating book to read as a Dane taught in the traditional teaching of Denmark as a small and humble nation-state. Bregnsbo deliberately takes the empirical perspective to emphasize and contrast it to these normative teachings.

I have a renewed respect for Valdemar Atterdag's abilities, the misunderstood view of Christian IV's warring temperament and Frederick VII's failed attempts at safeguarding the empire. Additionally, I've learnt that we zero-index our Queens! Margrethe the 0th was basically Queen and did some quite great things, just like Margrethe the 1st.

Very enjoyable read.

[Jeffrey Kouache · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shaky translation and overstretched use of the word empire but priceless trove of knowledge about Denmark not found anywhere else in English in such a compact, comprehensive format. A very enlightening read.

[Ki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up on this after a couple of chapters. Incompetent translation and even worse (i e no) proofreading. Repeated lines, typos and even more typos. An unholy mess ... smh

[Gabriel Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting; pity about the factual errors, the bad proofing and the mistranslations

The thesis behind this very interesting book is that Denmark historically, rather than being a nation state, has always been an empire. In other words composed of many different peoples and culture, whose common factor was the ruler. To quote the book: “An empire is larger than a nation-state, an empire is a world characterized by diversity, schisms, and fruitful cooperation. Denmark has certainly fit this description throughout history.”

Unfortunately, the book suffers from a few major drawbacks:

1. There are a small number of annoying factual errors. For instance, the authors claim that King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark attacked England in 1013 to punish king Æthelred for the murder of Sweyn’s brother Edward the Martyr. This is wrong: Edward was Æthelred’s brother, and Sweyn’s attack was to avenge the St Bride’s Day Massacre.

In another instance, the authors claim that the two sons of Canute the Great died in 1042. One of them did, the other died two years earlier.

There are quite a few others.

2. The book is very badly translated and proofread. The impression is that either the authors translated it themselves, or indeed that they originally wrote it in English but that their command of that language is far from perfect. There are an annoyingly large number of sentences that are badly written, that makes no sense, all that or clearly translated word forward word from Danish by someone who does not understand English.

These are unfortunate errors, and they should not have occurred. They detract from the pleasure of reading this very interesting book.

[Jorgon · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and original (to me, at least) approach and quite comprehensive for such a short text. However, the book would have benefited from better editing/correction process. There are several repetitions; the text occasionally jumps back and forth in time; occasional bits of terrible translation interrupt the reading flow. I should try the original version. :) Hopefully, these errors will get fixed in later editions--but it is only a minor quibble.

[Mads Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of high quality as an in-depth and comprehensive treatment of Danish history, mostly from a foreign relations perspective.