An intimate and detailed portrait of young Swedish women who chose to immigrate to America in the nineteenth century--why they left, what they found, and how they survived.
Reframing Swedish–American relations by focusing on contacts, crossings, and convergences beyond migration Studies of Swedish American history and identity have largely been confined to separate disciplines, such as history, literature, or politics. In Swedish–American Borderlands, this collection edited by Dag Blanck and Adam Hjorthén seeks to reconceptualize and redefine the field of Swedish–American relations by reviewing more complex cultural, social, and economic exchanges and interactions that take a broader approach to the international relationship—ultimately offering an alternative way of studying the history of transatlantic relations. Swedish–American Borderlands studies connections and contacts between Sweden and the United States from the seventeenth century to today, exploring how movements of people have informed the circulation of knowledge and ideas between the two countries. The volume brings together scholars from a wide range of disciplines within the humanities and social sciences to investigate multiple transcultural exchanges between Sweden and the United States. Rather than concentrating on one-way processes or specific national contexts, Swedish–American Borderlands adopts the concept of borderlands to examine contacts, crossings, and convergences between the nations, featuring specific case studies of topics like jazz, architecture, design, genealogy, and more. By placing interactions, entanglements, and cross-border relations at the center of the analysis, Swedish–American Borderlands seeks to bridge disciplinary divides, joining a diverse set of scholars and scholarship in writing an innovative history of Swedish–American relations to produce new understandings of what we perceive as Swedish, American, and Swedish American. Contributors: Philip J. Anderson, North Park U; Jennifer Eastman Attebery, Idaho State U; Marie Bennedahl, Linnaeus U; Ulf Jonas Björk, Indiana U–Indianapolis; Thomas J. Brown, U of South Carolina; Margaret E. Farrar, John Carroll U; Charlotta Forss, Stockholm U; Gunlög Fur, Linnaeus U; Karen V. Hansen, Brandeis U; Angela Hoffman, Uppsala U; Adam Kaul, Augustana College; Maaret Koskinen, Stockholm U; Merja Kytö, Uppsala U; Svea Larson, U of Wisconsin–Madison; Franco Minganti, U of Bologna; Frida Rosenberg, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm; Magnus Ullén, Stockholm U.
From smorgasbord and St. Lucia processions to Christmas Eve gatherings with dear family and friends, Swedish Americans are linked through the generations by a legacy of meatballs and lutfisk.
"In his book, Dag Blanck analyzes how Swedish American identity was constructed, maintained, and changed in the Augustana Synod from 1860 to 1917. The author poses three fundamental questions: How did an ethnic identity develop in the Augustana synod? Of what did that ethnic identity consist? Why did that ethnic identity come into being?" "[summary]"--Provided by publisher
Swedish immigrants tell their own stories in this collection of letters, diaries, and memoirs--a perfect book for those interested in history, immigration, or just the daily lives of early Swedish-American settlers.
"What happens to a people ... when it becomes divided and separated through a great overseas migration? ... how do the two parts of such a divided people relate to each other? What ideas do they have regarding each other as the process continues and as time and circumstance cause them to develop in separate ways of their own? The purpose of this book is to seek answers to such questions in the case of the Swedes during the period of their great migration, between roughly 1840 and 1940." -- Pref.