Content area
Full Text
* Byron J. Nordstrom. Culture and Customs of Sweden. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2010. Pp. 180.
Substantive and thoughtful are words rhat best describe Byron Nordstrom's recent volume on Sweden for the book series Culture and Customs of Europe. That this work is borh substantive and dioughtful is perhaps particularly impressive considering the challenge of writing a book of this genre. A traditional weakness of such books is that in trying to isolate the "typical" aspects of a country, one necessarily risks presenting generalizations and stereotypes that, when taken together, describe virtually no one. However, Nordstrom is quite open with his readers about this challenge; as he rightly cautions in his preface, die recent accelerated processes of cultural change due to "internal and external forces" has led to the result that "almost every aspect of [Swedish] life is caught in an ongoing and endless process of transformation that makes pinning down the country's culture and customs all that more difficult" (xi).
Nevertheless, he does in fact do much to pin down these cultural phenomena and customs by providing a tour of the region that is firmly grounded in data and documentation. The result of his careful labor is a valuable introduction to Swedish culture and history generally but is primarily a fresh, virtually up-to-the-minute survey of the most recent decade. As such, it promises to be a helpful study for instructors to use in introductory language and literature courses, exchange students, as well as diplomats, business executives, and armchak tourists alike. The work is also friendly to an American audience, with temperatures in Fahrenheit and distances compared to those between American cities, for instance.
The work is replete with lists...