{"id":189,"date":"2009-03-25T07:09:25","date_gmt":"2009-03-25T11:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/?p=189"},"modified":"2009-03-25T07:09:25","modified_gmt":"2009-03-25T11:09:25","slug":"vilhelm-moberg-and-swedish-immigration-to-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/vilhelm-moberg-and-swedish-immigration-to-the-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Vilhelm Moberg and Swedish Emigration to the US"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of days ago I stumbled upon the Immigration Explorer<\/a> on The New York Times website and I\u2019m ashamed to admit, I\u2019ve been playing with it like a little kid since.<\/p>\n

A few things surprised me, though. One \u2013 that the Norwegian and Swedish data have been divided into two groups. Why is it surprising? In other sources, I\u2019ve always seen these countries lumped together under the common label of \u201cScandinavian\u201d immigration. And since Norway and Sweden used to have this love-hate relationship going on for many centuries, it makes me wonder just how accurate such a \u201cby country\u201d division really is.<\/p>\n

Another thing that surprised me was how relatively small-scale the \u201cScandinavian\u201d immigration was. True, it was immense when compared to the population levels back in those days in Sweden (and in Norway, too). But when you see those immigrants alongside other nations \u2013 Italians, Germans, or Poles, for example, then you come to realize how just tiny the Swedish numbers were in comparison.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s another thing that surprised me. We\u2019ve always been taught that those immigrants settled primarily in Minnesota and in the rural Midwest. But when you look at the Immigration Explorer, you can see pockets of Swedes (and Norwegians, too) all over, including California. And surprise, surprise, it looks like Chicago had the largest concentration of Swedish immigrants for several decades.<\/p>\n

Still, Minnesota is the place that everyone thinks of when talking about Swedish immigration to the US in the 19th century. That\u2019s the place that Vilhelm Moberg<\/strong> wrote about in his epic series. That\u2019s the place where these days you can meet the quintessential blond, blue-eyed folk, who will cheerfully announce: \u201cYeah, I\u2019m Swedish!\u201d<\/em> And then give you a blank stare when you attempt to speak Swedish to them. (That particular American quirk always drove me up the wall. No, you are not Swedish. You are of Swedish origin. There\u2019s a difference.)<\/em><\/p>\n

But let\u2019s talk about Vilhlem Moberg<\/strong> (1898 – 1973) for a minute. Have you read his books? Or, if not, have you at least seen the movies? And don\u2019t feel bad if you didn\u2019t like the films. Even though the first one was nominated for four Academy Awards, I hated it. I watched it on TV as a kid, and then later on I rented it on video (video! ha! who remembers those days?)<\/em> when I was all grown up and better prepared to understand the story.<\/p>\n

Personally, it was the first book in The Emigrants series, titled simply \u201cUtvandrarna<\/strong>\u201d that broke my heart. The other books in the series are: \u201cInvandrarna<\/strong>\u201d, \u201cNybyggarna<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cSista brevet till Sverige<\/strong>\u201d. In a poll conducted by Sveriges television<\/strong> in 1998, the entire series was voted as the most important Swedish books of all time.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve eventually read all four books, but \u201cUtvandrarna<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cSista brevet till Sverige<\/strong>\u201d are my favorite among them. The whole series should be considered \u201cessential reading\u201d, be it in English, or in Swedish, for any Swedophile. It has a gripping story, historical bits, cultural themes, and enough Scandinavian melancholy to fill buckets. But most of all, it\u2019s also simply great, classic literature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of days ago I stumbled upon the Immigration Explorer on The New York Times website and I\u2019m ashamed to admit, I\u2019ve been playing with it like a little kid since. A few things surprised me, though. One \u2013 that the Norwegian and Swedish data have been divided into two groups. Why is it…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3230,3454,3472,3509],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","tag-immigration-explorer","tag-swedish-immigration","tag-the-emigrants-book-series","tag-vilhelm-moberg"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}