The Experience of Modern Scandinavia

Coming Lecture Course at Yale University

Jason Lavery

This course will examine the history of the Scandinavian countries from the Reformation to the present. The reading assignments are on average about 125 pages per week. The smaller and more obscure reading assignments will be placed in the class reader. The reader will also include maps. Knowledge of these maps will tested on the mid-term and final examinations. The mid-terms each will count for 30% and the final for 40% of the course grade.

Course Textbook: T.K. Derry, A History of Scandinavia (referred to in the syllabus as "Derry").

Syllabus for Lecture Course:

Week 1

Lecture 1: Modern Scandinavia: An Introduction

Lecture 2: The Reformation in the Danish and Norwegian Realms

Reading: Derry, chapter 5; Peder Palladius, A Visitation.

Week 2

Lecture 3: The Reformation in Sweden and Finland

Lecture 4: Rural and Urban Society (ca. 1500-1700)

Reading: August Strindberg, Master Olof.

Week 3

Lecture 5: Nobilities and Kings (ca. 1500-1660)

Lecture 6: Absolutism

Reading: Michael Roberts (ed.), Sweden as a Great Power 1611-1697, pp. 93-134 (a collection of primary sources).

Week 4

Lecture 7: The Peripheries and the Centers (ca. 1500-1700)

Lecture 8: Scandinavia and the European Economy (ca. 1523-1721)

Reading: T.K. Derry, A Short History of Norway, pp. 89-108; Kirsten Hastrup, Nature and Policy in Iceland 1400-1800, pp. 115-196; Eino Jutikkala, History of Finland, pp. 59-139.

Week 5

Lecture 9: The Swedish Imperial Experience (1560-1721)

Lecture 10: The "Decline" of Denmark (1560-1721)

Reading: Derry, chapter 6.

Week 6

Lecture 11: Eighteenth-Century Sweden: An "Age of Liberty?"

Lecture 12: Eighteenth-Century Denmark: "Enlightened Despotism?"

Reading: Derry, chapter 8; Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

Week 7

Lecture 13: European War and Internal Upheaval (1792-1815)

Lecture 14: First Mid-Term

Reading: Derry, chapter 9.

Week 8

Lecture 15: Nationalism (especially in Norway and Finland)

Lecture 16: Scandinavianism

Reading: Derry, chapter 10; Bjoernstjerne Bjoernson, The King.

Week 9

Lecture 17: From Estate Society to Civil Society

Lecture 18: Women and Society

Reading: Derry, chapter 12; Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House.

Week 10

Lecture 19: Agriculture and Industry

Lecture 20: Emigration

Reading: Terje Leiren, Marcus Thrane: A Norwegian Radical in America.

Week 11

Lecture 21: From Unions to Nation-States (1864-1918)

Lecture 22: The Breakthrough of Parliamentary Government

Reading: Tuomo Polvinen, Imperial Borderland.

Week 12

Lecture 23: Second Mid-Term

Lecture 24: The Search for a Middle Way in Politics (1914-1939)

Reading: Derry, chapters 11, 13.

Week 13

Lecture 25: World War II

Lecture 26: World War II

Reading: Derry, chapter 14; Movie: "The Winter War."

Week 14

Lect. 27: Scandinavia in the Cold War

Lect. 28: The Formation of the Welfare State

Reading: Derry, chapters 15, 16; Halldor Laxness, The Atom Station.

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