axel kristinsson's web
I am an independent historian, attached to the Reykjavik Academy, with an interest in macro-history, complexity theory and an evolutionary approach.
an uneventful life
I was born in 1959 and grew up in Reykjavik reading Prince Valiant and Donald Duck. For a while I wanted to become a philosopher but then I actually started to read philosophy and soon changed my mind. I then became interested in archaeology and even considered studying it in university before deciding on history which I thought would be less limiting. Little did I know…
When I entered the University of Iceland in 1979, I was not very passionate about Icelandic history. In school, I had always thought it of little interest compared to world history. I soon found out that the history department was not much interested in anything but Iceland and I had little choice but to conform. Therefore, I chose as my subject the period of Icelandic history that I found least dull, the Commonwealth.
Nothing of great significance happened in my early years of historical study or until I was required in 1993-94 to spend the winter in Copenhagen as part of my doctoral programme. Being very bored during my year of exile, my mind started to wander and I conceived the idea for what I consider my first significant scholarly contribution (only published almost a decade later as "Lords and Literature"). In hindsight, it was even more important that I bought and read a book called Complexity by M.M. Waldrop. This was a popular style book that introduced complexity theory in laymen's terms and it triggered a subtle change in how I thought about history. This change wasn't obvious at first but about ten years later it broke through to the surface.
The good thing about working at the Heritage Centre was all the
nice people I worked with. Here we are on a summer outing.
In the meantime I got lazy and disinterested in my doctoral thesis. It just didn't seem all that important. Finally in 2000 I took a job as the director of the Borgarfjörður Heritage Centre. This taught me the real meaning of boredom. Not only was there little to occupy my scholarly interest but I didn’t even have the time to let my mind wander. Therefore, I wasn't all that sorry when a disagreement with the governing board caused the termination of my employment in early 2004. Finally I had some time to think.
As usually happens when I have time on my hands, wild ideas started to emerge. In the spring I began writing Expansions and the process of writing this book has totally transformed my historical thinking. I became a macro-historian.
what kind of history?
to be added...