Swedes: From Whence They Came (Little Histories Series)

Rating:
Summary: NOT a great book
Review: In this small book Jack R. Evans attempts an "all-you-wanted-to-know-about-Sweden" book. Unfortunately, his book is very uneven, and it reads like a collection of high-school term papers on Swedish topics, with little connecting thread. His historical section ends with the establishment of the present royal house in 1818, his section on religion devotes more to the mythical Sankta Lucia than to either Christianity or the old faith, and sprinkled here and there are a few pages on Swedish inventors, foods and recipes. There is nothing on Swedish politics after the early nineteenth century, and almost nothing on the contributions of Swedish-Americans to our national culture. On top of that, the book is terribly edited, with typos throughout, from "Lews," Delaware, as the name of the first Swedish settlement in America (it's "Lewes") on page 1 to two different misspellings of the name for Swedish hot spiced wine on page 149. In a time when word-processors can handle almost anything, there is little excuse for Evans' almost total omission of Swedish diacritical marks. There are many far better books. For starters, try Sweden: A Political and Cultural History by Eric Elstob, and Swedish Mentality by Ake Daun (my wife says she can see me in this one!).

Rating:
Summary: NOT a great book
Review: In this small book Jack R. Evans attempts an "all-you-wanted-to-know-about-Sweden" book. Unfortunately, his book is very uneven, and it reads like a collection of high-school term papers on Swedish topics, with little connecting thread. His historical section ends with the establishment of the present royal house in 1818, his section on religion devotes more to the mythical Sankta Lucia than to either Christianity or the old faith, and sprinkled here and there are a few pages on Swedish inventors, foods and recipes. There is nothing on Swedish politics after the early nineteenth century, and almost nothing on the contributions of Swedish-Americans to our national culture. On top of that, the book is terribly edited, with typos throughout, from "Lews," Delaware, as the name of the first Swedish settlement in America (it's "Lewes") on page 1 to two different misspellings of the name for Swedish hot spiced wine on page 149. In a time when word-processors can handle almost anything, there is little excuse for Evans' almost total omission of Swedish diacritical marks. There are many far better books. For starters, try Sweden: A Political and Cultural History by Eric Elstob, and Swedish Mentality by Ake Daun (my wife says she can see me in this one!).