Legitimating Identities: The Self-Presentations of Rulers and Subjects

by Rodney Barker

• ISBN13: 9780521004251
• ISBN10: 052100425X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-12
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Rulers of all kinds, from feudal monarchs to democratic presidents and prime ministers, justify themselves to themselves through a variety of rituals, rhetoric, and dramatisations, using everything from architecture and coinage to etiquette and portraiture. This kind of legitimation - self-legitimation - has been overlooked in an age which is concerned principally with how government can be justified in the eyes of its citizens. Rodney Barker argues that at least as much time is spent by rulers legitimating themselves in their own eyes, and cultivating their own sense of identity, as is spent in trying to convince ordinary subjects. Once this dimension of ruling is taken into account, a far fuller understanding can be gained of what rulers are doing when they rule. It can also open the way to a more complete grasp of what subjects are doing, both when they obey and when they rebel.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
Legitimacy and legitimation	1	(29)
Legitimating identities	30	(11)
King John's Christmas cards: self-legitimation	41	(29)
Cousins at home and abroad	70	(19)
Rebels and vigilantes	89	(17)
Citizens	106	(30)
Conclusion	136	(5)
Bibliography	141	(17)
Index	158