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The Story of Scandinavia

From the Vikings to Social Democracy

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The Story of Scandinavia

By: Stein Ringen
Narrated by: Chris Courtenay
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About this listen

In The Story of Scandinavia, political scholar Stein Ringen chronicles more than 1,200 years of drama, economic rise and fall, crises, kings and queens, war, peace, language and culture.

Scandinavian history has been one of dramatic discontinuities of collapse and restarts, from the Viking Age to the Age of Perpetual War to the modern age today. For a thousand years, the Scandinavian countries were kingdoms of repression where monarchs played at the game of being European powers, at the expense of their own populations.

The brand we now know as "Scandinavia" is a recent invention. During most of its history, Denmark and Sweden, and to some degree Norway, were bloody enemies. These sentiments of enmity have not been fully settled. Under the surface of collaboration remain undercurrents of hatred, envy, contempt and pity.

What does it mean today to be Scandinavian? For the author, whose identity is Scandinavian but his life European, this masterly history is a personal exploration as well as a narrative of compelling scope.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Stein Ringen (P)2023 Orion Publishing Group Limited
Europe Scandinavia Royalty Western Europe Norway Viking War

Critic Reviews

Carrying us from the Vikings to today, Stein Ringen's sweeping narrative will engage and instruct everyone from specialists to first-timers. Scandinavia is another outstanding book from a writer remarkable for the breadth of his reach and the incisiveness of his analysis (James T. Kloppenberg, author)

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