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.

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.

Acknowledgements

Introduction
Jóhann Páll ÁrnasonandBjörn Wittrock

Chapter 1. Nordic Modernity: Origins, Trajectories, Perspective
Bo Stråth

Chapter 2. The Danish Path to Modernity
Uffe Østergård

Chapter 3. Denmark 1740-1940: A Centralised Cultural Community
Niels Kayser Nielsen

Chapter 4. The Making of Sweden
Björn Wittrock

Chapter 5. History, Ethics and the Path to Modernity in Pre-Revolutionary Sweden
Peter Hallberg

Chapter 6. Shifting Knowledge Regimes: The Metamorphoses of Norwegian Reformism
Rune Slagstad

Chapter 7. Alternative Processes of Modernization?
Gunnar Skirbekk

Chapter 8. Nordic Modernity and Finnish Modernity: Similarities and Differences
Risto Alapuro

Chapter 9. The Finnish Grand Duchy and the Paradoxes of the Finnish Political Culture
Henrik Stenius

Chapter 10. Icelandic Anomalies
Jóhann Páll Árnason

Chapter 11. ‘The Time Will Come’: Icelandic Modernity and the Role of Nationalism
Guðmundur Hálfdanarson

Notes on Contributors