Historisk tidskrift

Den svenska radikalnationalismens genesis

Markus Lundström — 2025-05-27

Genesis of Swedish radical nationalism

While historical studies of fascism in Sweden typically start in the interwar period, this article traces the political-ideological roots in the nationalist era leading up to the Great War. It depicts the genesis of Swedish radical nationalism, a political ideology centred on tying an imagined people to a bordered territory. In the early twentieth century, radical nationalism in Sweden articulated that the people were diluted by cultural decadence and uncontrolled migration while the territory was threatened by geopolitical aggression from Russia. This radicalisation of national defence was driven by a gendered logic of masculinist protection, reinforced by an emergency temporality oriented towards national rebirth. Whereas national conservatism cultivated the memory of paradise lost, radical nationalism became the politics of resurrection: Swedishness restored and Sweden reborn. This ideational assemblage of defence and rebirth was articulated in a series of books, articles, and journals published by three men – Rudolf Kjellén, Adrian Molin, and Teodor Holmberg – who have become ideological sages for the nationalist movement today; radical-nationalist think tanks are republishing Kjellén’s and Molin’s political manifestos while the Sweden Democrats publicly acknowledges its debt to Holmberg’s political thought. In that sense, the genesis of Swedish radical nationalism serves as an ideological resource when demanding the reinforcement of the exclusionary mechanisms of the modern nation-state.

I floden av källpublikationer

Alexander Isacsson — 2025-05-27

An outpouring of scholarly editions: Media history perspectives on the editing of historical sources in Sweden, 1834–1847

This article examines the scholarly editing of historical sources for publication in nineteenth-century Sweden. The analysis focuses on the approximately 500 letters exchanged between Hans Järta, the Director General of the National Archives of Sweden, and Bror Emil Hildebrand, the Director General of the Swedish National Heritage Board, from 1834 to 1847. The aim is to historicise scholarly editions as a medium in the production and dissemination of historical knowledge by studying the ideas and factors that influenced their editorial work.

Järta and Hildebrand were both members of the Royal Society for the Publication of Manuscripts on Scandinavian History and contributed significantly to its publications. Five key aspects of Järta’s and Hildebrand’s editorial work are considered: the discovery of documents and choice of editorial projects; selection criteria for the inclusion of texts in the publication process; presentation methods and anticipated readership; the challenges they encountered as editors; and the relationship between editorial and archival practices.

The analysis reveals that the editorial situation was shaped by various factors. Relevant documents were discovered in the archives, but the cost of publication required the Royal Society to be selective. Editorial projects were encouraged, and documents included, if they were considered significant. A document was thought significant if it had previously unknown information or provided reliable, specific insights into historical events. It is found that Järta and Hildebrand were not only motivated by nationalist interests. Within the overarching nationalist framework, their ambition was to generate new historical knowledge through their scholarship and source criticism. When they and other late nineteenth-century scholarly editors criticised their predecessors’ lack of scholarly rigour, theirs were media-specific utterances in processes of professionalisation and legitimation.

From the lack of set genres, aims, audiences, or publication formats it is evident that scholarly editions in the 1830s and 1840s were ”new media”. Järta’s and Hildebrand’s correspondence reflected their deliberations. The remediation involved in editing and publishing archival documents influenced other media, including physical archives and their contents. Beyond managing the risks of archival materials’ abundance and scarcity, scholarly editions functioned as media because they intervened in the relations between historians, archives, and the past.

Det nordiska offentlighetsrummets politiska polemik

Christian Sourander — 2025-05-27

Public life and Nordic political polemics: Eirik Hornborg’s vision of democracy, 1934–1937

The historical study of key political concepts in Sweden and Finland is rooted in different national traditions. The nationhood of the political actors has determined which debates have been subject to historical research. This article complements these national traditions by examining a political debate conducted in a transnational Nordic public sphere, using the example of a newspaper debate in the mid-1930s initiated by the Finland-Swede Eirik Hornborg, a leading public figure in Finland and pan-Nordic enthusiast. The case study shows the fruitfulness of a transnational perspective on the history of key political Nordic concepts in the Nordic countries, pointing to the transnational content and meaning that has been overlooked by earlier historical research that has primarily been conducted within national traditions.

Historiska kvinnor, digitala kvinnor

Ale Pålsson — 2025-05-27

En fruktbar kombination av historia, genus och digitala metoder

Maria Ågren — 2025-05-27

The Promise and the Challenge of Digitization

Margaret R. Hunt — 2025-05-27

Att spåra kvinnoliv

Rebecka Lennartsson — 2025-05-27

Svar till Anton Jansson

Arne Jarrick — 2025-05-27

Svensk historiedidaktik utan lärandeteori

Per-Arne Karlsson — 2025-05-27

Vad vill vi med historielärarutbildningen?

Robert Thorp — 2025-05-27

Forskarnas folkhem

Nils Edling — 2025-05-27

Nordiska museets Nordbor

Madeleine Larsson — 2025-05-27

Källor till 1900-talets diplomatiska vardag

Susanna Erlandsson — 2025-05-27

The patent office on display: Intellectual property in the public eye

Megan Richardson — 2025-05-27

Nya perspektiv på svensk bankreglering

Susanna Fellman — 2025-05-27

The Voice of the Holocaust Survivor: A Uniquely Swedish Project

Tony Kushner — 2025-05-27

Assar Lindbeck och den svenska nyliberalismen

Kristina Boréus — 2025-05-27

The making and unmaking of the Museum of Movements: A study of the institutional ontology of museums

Hans Lauge Hansen — 2025-05-27

David Larsson Heidenblad & Johan Östling, Kunskapshistoria: En introduktion (Lund: Studentlitteratur 2024). 123 s.

Esbjörn Larsson — 2025-05-27

Johan Östling, Kunskapens stora hus: Huvudlinjer i universitetets historia (Göteborg & Stockholm: Makadam förlag 2024). 140 s.

Jenny Eklöf — 2025-05-27

Agneta Ney, Vänskap mellan kvinnor på vikingatiden: Om urval och historieskrivning i de isländska sagorna (Lund: Nordic Academic Press 2023). 201 s.

Philip Lavender — 2025-05-27

Kendra Willson (red.), Runes in Finland (Helsingfors & Stockholm: Svenska Litteratursällskapet i Finland & Appell Förlag 2024). 264 s.

Kristel Zilmer — 2025-05-27

Kirsi Salonen & Kurt Villads Jensen, Scandinavia in the Middle Ages 900–1550: Between Two Oceans (London & New York: Routledge 2023). 319 s.

Denis Sukhino-Khomenko — 2025-05-27

Natalja Ganina, Albrecht Cordes & Jan Lokers (utg.), Der Bardewiksche Codex des Lübischen Rechts von 1294: Band 1: Faksimile und Erläuterungen; Band 2: Edition, Textanalyse, Entstehung und Hintergründe (2021); Band 3: Rechtshistorischer Kommentar (2022).

Gabriela Bjarne Larsson — 2025-05-27

Rodney Edvinsson, Bo Franzén, Roger Svensson & Johan Söderberg, History of Prices and Wages in Medieval Sweden, Vol I: Statistics and Analysis; Vol II: Database (Stockholm: Svenska Numismatiska Föreningen 2023). 213 + 307 s.

Thomas Lindkvist — 2025-05-27

Anna Perälä, Boktryckarnas ädla konst: Persondikter 1605–1764 (Helsingfors & Stockholm: Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland & Appell förlag 2023). 254 s.

Ann Öhrberg — 2025-05-27

Ingemar Oscarsson, På besök i stormaktstidens Sverige (Stockholm: Natur & Kultur 2024). 253 s.

Asger Wienberg — 2025-05-27

Robert Oldach, Schwedens Krieg gegen Friedrich den Großen 1757–1762: Kriegsgegner berichten, Nordische Geschichte 16 (Münster: LIT Verlag 2023). 413 s.

Oskar Sjöström — 2025-05-27

Bengt Sandin, Politikens åldersgränser: Rösträtt och valbarhet i Sverige från 1840-tal till 1920-tal (Stockholm & Göteborg: Makadam 2024). 311 s.

Nils Edling — 2025-05-27

Bert Mårald, Läroverken in memoriam: En studie av kulturmiljö, pedagogik och politik under 100 år (Möklinta: Gidlunds 2023). 367 s.

Björn Lundberg — 2025-05-27

Henrik Edgren, En kungsådra för nationens samhörighet: Läsebok för folkskolan i det sena 1800- och tidiga 1900-talets skola och samhälle (Lund: Nordic Academic Press 2024). 398 s.

Daniel Jakobsson — 2025-05-27

Leonora Lottrup Rasmussen, En kvinnlig gränsgångare: Clara Lachmanns stiftelse under 100 år (Lund: Makadam Förlag 2023). 213 s.

Mia Kuritzén Löwengart — 2025-05-27

Raimo Pullat & Risto Pullat, Vodka Sea: The illicit alcohol trade in the Baltic Sea region between the world wars (Tallinn: Eesti Meresmuuseum 2024). 588 s.

Sven Ekdahl — 2025-05-27

Werner Schmidt, Svenska fotspår på vägen till Förintelsen: Om skuld och medansvar (Stockholm: Carlssons 2024). 295 s.

Oscar Nygren — 2025-05-27

Britta Zetterström Geschwind, Markus Idvall & Fredrik Nilsson, Den medicinska spärren: Smitta och gränsarbete i skuggan av Förintelsen (Göteborg & Stockholm: Makadam 2023). 325 s.

Ingrid Lyberg — 2025-05-27

Historievetenskap i en postdigital tid

Anne Berg — 2025-05-27

Omstridda automater

Peter Bauer — 2025-05-27