The Shortest History Of Scandinavia (14,000 Years From The Stone Age And The Vikings To The Happiest Nations In The World)

By (author) Kuldkepp, Mart
Short description/annotation:
From the Stone Age to “Scandimania”—discover the aesthetic influence and unparalleled global impact on peace by these Nordic nations
Description:

Scandinavia has long been lauded for its equality, universal welfare, peacefulness, and untouched nature—not to mention its interior design, crime literature, and love of all things hygge. But the Nordic nations have had their dark periods, too: pandemics, wars and occupations, and expansionism are all essential to understanding the Scandinavian story.

In The Shortest History of Scandinavia, historian Mart Kuldkepp sketches the outlines of the region’s rich history, tracing its political and social evolution from its first-known peoples, who followed the retreating ice sheet north during the last Ice Age, to the modern Scandinavians living in countries that are among the happiest in the world today.

Through Scandinavia’s many cultural touchstones—tales of Vikings, the Nobel Peace Prizes, and even ABBA—Kuldkepp illuminates the concept of “Nordicness,” a hard-to-define quality that has nonetheless steered the region to respond to major challenges, actively shaping its history and exerting a considerable influence on European and global history in the process. As the issues of climate change, democracy, and world peace continue to shift, The Shortest History of Scandinavia is a pertinent, brisk primer on one of the world’s most admired regions.

Table of contents:
Preface What Is Scandinavia? Prehistorical Scandinavia The Viking Age The Rise of Statehood The High Middle Ages: Centralization and Europeanization The Late Medieval Crisis and the Kalmar Union Wars and Politics: 1500s–1600s The Early Modern Period: Absolutism and Parliamentarianism Economy, Trade and Colonialism in the 1700s The Napoleonic Wars and the Swedish–Norwegian Union Romantic Nationalism, Liberalism and Scandinavianism Economic and Social Modernization: Late 1800s – Early 1900s Modern Parliamentarism and the End of the Swedish–Norwegian Union World War I: Neutrality and Political Renewal The Interwar Period: Crisis and Recovery World War II: Resistance and Acquiescence The Cold War and the Nordic Balance The Classic Era of the Welfare State European Integration and Post–Cold War Transition Political Developments in the 1990s and 2000s Nordic Cultural Exports and “Scandimania” Scandinavian Successes and Failures Acknowledgments Select Bibliography Image Credits Index
Review quote:
"A superbly clear, learned and wide-ranging history of the five Nordic nations."
Review quote:
"Admirably condensed. . . . Popular, accessible history by a Nordic specialist."
Biographical note:
Mart Kuldkepp is a professor and researcher of Estonian and Nordic history at University College London, where he specializes in the political history of the Baltic and Nordic regions in the twentieth century. He has also translated numerous books, poetry and short stories, mainly from Icelandic and Old Icelandic into Estonian. He lives in London.