
- 519 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
"An engaging, layered look into a culture complex enough both to produce stylish rain gear and to embrace the foul weather that necessitates it." —
The New York Times Book Review
We fill our homes with Nordic furniture; we envy their humane social welfare system and healthy outdoor lifestyle; we devour their crime fiction. Even their strangely attractive melancholia seems to express a stoic, commonsensical acceptance of life's vicissitudes. But how valid is this outsider's view of Scandinavia, and how accurate is our picture of life in Scandinavia today?
Scandinavians follows a chronological progression across the Northern centuries: the Vendel era of Swedish prehistory; the age of the Vikings; the Christian conversions of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland; the unified Scandinavian state of the late Middle Ages; the sea-change of the Reformation; the kingdom of Denmark-Norway; King Gustav Adolphus and the age of Sweden's greatness; the cultural golden age of Ibsen, Strindberg, and Munch; the impact of the Second World War; Scandinavia's postwar social democratic nirvana; and the terror attack of Anders Behring Breivik.
Scandinavians is also a personal investigation, with award-winning author Robert Ferguson as the ideal companion as he explores not only the region's society, politics, culture, and temperament, but also wide-ranging topics such as the power and mystique of Scandinavian women, from the Valkyries to the Vikings; from Nora and Hedda to Garbo and Bergman.
"A delightful history in which the author truly captures 'the soul of the North.' "— Kirkus Reviews
We fill our homes with Nordic furniture; we envy their humane social welfare system and healthy outdoor lifestyle; we devour their crime fiction. Even their strangely attractive melancholia seems to express a stoic, commonsensical acceptance of life's vicissitudes. But how valid is this outsider's view of Scandinavia, and how accurate is our picture of life in Scandinavia today?
Scandinavians follows a chronological progression across the Northern centuries: the Vendel era of Swedish prehistory; the age of the Vikings; the Christian conversions of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland; the unified Scandinavian state of the late Middle Ages; the sea-change of the Reformation; the kingdom of Denmark-Norway; King Gustav Adolphus and the age of Sweden's greatness; the cultural golden age of Ibsen, Strindberg, and Munch; the impact of the Second World War; Scandinavia's postwar social democratic nirvana; and the terror attack of Anders Behring Breivik.
Scandinavians is also a personal investigation, with award-winning author Robert Ferguson as the ideal companion as he explores not only the region's society, politics, culture, and temperament, but also wide-ranging topics such as the power and mystique of Scandinavian women, from the Valkyries to the Vikings; from Nora and Hedda to Garbo and Bergman.
"A delightful history in which the author truly captures 'the soul of the North.' "— Kirkus Reviews
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Scandinavians by Robert Ferguson in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Geschichte & Europäische Geschichte. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Map of Scandinavia
- Prelude. A Season in Hell: Copenhagen 1969
- A Note on Scandinavian Languages
- 1. Stones
- 2. The Conversion of the Icelanders
- 3. Amleth, Luther and the Last Priest: The Reformation in Scandinavia
- 4. The King of the Past: Frederik VII of Denmark
- 5. The Vasa Ship: Sweden’s Age of Greatness
- 6. Abductions: The War Between the Danes and Algerians
- 7. The Short Sweet Rule of Johann Friedrich Struensee
- 8. Taking God at His Word: Søren Kierkegaard and Olav Fiskvik
- 9. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Explorer
- Interlude: Ibsen’s Ghosts
- 10. The Emigrants
- 11. World War II: The Scandinavian Experience
- 12. The Power of Scandinavian Women
- 13. Dagny Juel and the Invention of Melancholy
- 14. Malexander
- 15. Oslo 2016
- A Scandinavian Timeline
- For Further Interest
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Index
- About the Author