'Att fästa sig vid staten' has two translations. It can mean 'to attach oneself to the state' or 'to wed the state'. There is a state of marriage and, in the early modern period at least, a marriage also constituted a state in miniature: a husband and wife acting as rulers of their everyday household the same way as the king and queen ruled the nation-state. Karin Hassan Jansson’s new book Att fästa sig vid staten. Äktenskap, arbete och ansvar i svensk samhällsdebatt 1750–1830 (To wed the state. Marriage, work and responsibility in Swedish social debate 1750–1830) examines the way marriage was discussed in the Diet’s debates, political texts, advice literature, laws, pamphlets, plays and the press in the Swedish realm from 1750 to 1830.
Review of: Att fästa sig vid staten. Äktenskap, arbete och ansvar i svensk samhällsdebatt 1750–1830. Karin Hassan Jansson, Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2024, 240 p., ISBN 978-91-89936-00-3.