Nordic Paths to Modernity / / ed. by Jóhann Páll Árnason, Björn Wittrock.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Alapuro, Risto,; Hallberg, Peter,; Hálfdanarson, Guðmundur,; Nielsen, Niels Kayser,; Skirbekk, Gunnar,; Slagstad, Rune,; Stenius, Henrik,; Stråth, Bo,; Wittrock, Björn,; Árnason, Jóhann Páll,; Østergård, Uffe,
• HerausgeberIn: Wittrock, Björn,; Árnason, Jóhann Páll,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2012]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (296 p.)

Within the growing attention to the diverse forms and trajectories of modern societies, the Nordic countries are now widely seen as a distinctive and instructive case. While discussions have centred on the ‘Nordic model’ of the welfare state and its record of adaptation to the changing global environment of the late twentieth century, this volume’s focus goes beyond these themes. The guiding principle here is that a long-term historical-sociological perspective is needed to make sense of the Nordic paths to modernity; of their significant but not complete convergence in patterns, which for some time were perceived as aspects of a model to be emulated in other settings; and of the specific features that still set the five countries in question (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland) apart from one another. The contributors explore transformative processes, above all the change from an absolutistmilitary state to a democratic one with its welfarist phase, as well as the crucial experiences that will have significant implications on future developments.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1. Nordic Modernity: Origins, Trajectories, Perspectives -- 2. The Danish Path to Modernity -- 3. Denmark 1740–1940: A Centralized Cultural Community -- 4. The Making of Sweden -- 5. History and Ethics in Pre-revolutionary Sweden -- 6. The Metamorphoses of Norwegian Reformism -- 7. Alternative Processes of Modernization? -- 8. Nordic and Finnish Modernity: A Comparison -- 9. Paradoxes of the Finnish Political Culture -- 10. Icelandic Anomalies -- 11. Icelandic Modernity and the Role of Nationalism -- Notes on Contributors -- Index