Absolutist Celebration in Late Ancien Régimes

Reflections on the Ruler Rituals of Empress Catherine II of Russia and King Gustav III of Sweden

This _Essay is a link in a chain of works I have written over a number of years that have brought forth and developed a novel theoretical and methodological apparatus, centered on the concepts of ‘ruler visibility’ and ‘popular belonging,’ for studying the origin, nature, and evolution of the modern mindset on a mass scale. The essence of it…