Scandinavism: Overlapping and Competing Identities in the Nordic World, 1770-1919

Winner of the 2022 Nordic History Book Award

Despite its failure as a political mobilizer, Scandinavism as a cultural movement would have a great impact on national consciousness-raising in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden by stressing common ethnolinguistic, mythological and historical roots. This cultural vision is traced in 'the Long 19th Century’, specifically in its interactions and overlaps with the various nationally specific manifestations of cultural nationalism. Through an in-depth analysis of an extensive corpus of cultural products – ranging from novels and poetry to public commemorations, painting and street name signs – this book demonstrates that cultural Scandinavism was successful in forging a common pan-Scandinavian identity that supplemented and strengthened national-identity formation in the three nationalities it aimed to unify.

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Tim van Gerven, Ph.D. (2020), University of Amsterdam, works as a teacher of modern European history at the same university. His research focuses on European macronationalisms in comparative perspective, with a particular focus on Scandinavism, Pan-Germanism and Greater Netherlandism.