Temporalization and Professionalization: The Case of Lauritz Weibull and the Swedish Discipline of History

Abstract

This chapter deals with the Swedish medievalist Lauritz Weibull (1873–1960). He became professor of history at the University of Lund in 1919 and editor-in-chief of the historical journal Scandia from its foundation in 1928. Weibull was a fierce polemicist and prone to portray himself and former students of his as the only scientific historians in the Swedish discipline during the first half of the twentieth century. This outstanding self-assuredness was mediated very successfully by Weibull and his followers. The view that modern historical science in Sweden originates from Lauritz Weibull has been a cornerstone for disciplinary identity-building. Such conceptions of ‘father figures’ are not uncommon, and have also been held in the Danish and Norwegian disciplines (see Jensen, 2000; Sejersted, 1995; Thue, 1999). But the ‘heritage’ of such father figures usually consists of master narratives of national identity (see Jorgensen’s chapter in this volume). This is not the case with Lauritz Weibull. He excelled only as a medievalist. In contrast to the cases of Denmark and Norway, medieval Sweden has been peripheral to Swedish national identity in the twentieth century. Irrespective of the relative isolation of his research field, Lauritz Weibull did not produce a competing narrative of national identity. Why, then, has he been regarded as keeper of the disciplinary heritage? I suggest that, if one wants to explore the benefit of Lauritz Weibull for the construction of Swedish identity, one should instead look more closely at his self-assured conviction of being modern. This temporal metaphor is the focus of this study.