This book represents the first recent attempt to provide a comprehensive treatment of Sweden's economic development since the middle of the 18th century. It traces the rapid industrialisation, the political currents and the social ambitions, that transformed Sweden from a backward agrarian economy into what is now regarded by many as a model welfar

The 'Age of Revolution' is a term seldom used in Scandinavian historiography, despite the fact that Scandinavia was far from untouched by the late eighteenth-century revolutions in Europe and America. Presenting the latest research on political culture in Scandinavia, this volume with twenty-seven contributions focuses on four key aspects: the crisis of monarchy; the transformation in political debate; the emerging influence of commercial interest in politics; and the shifting boundaries of political participation. Generously illustrated throughout, this book will introduce non-Scandinavian readers to developments in the Nordic countries during the late-eighteenth and early nineteenth-centuries and both complement and challenge research into the political cultures of Europe and America.