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Andrew G. Newby, Hitler’s Scandinavian Legacy, ed. John Gilmour and Jill Stephenson, The English Historical Review, Volume 131, Issue 548, February 2016, Pages 242–244, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cev391
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Extract
This book is a welcome addition to the English-language historiography of the Nordic region during the Second World War. Just as the Nordic Model of social welfare has been presented as a ‘model with five exceptions’, so the experiences of the Scandinavian states and Finland diverged considerably during wartime. The intimately intertwined national narratives nonetheless reveal considerable differences in terms of their particular societies and, especially, in their relationships with external powers.
In a lucid and pertinent introduction, the editors, Jill Stephenson and John Gilmour, outline the parameters of the volume, noting the importance of tackling not only the actual events of 1939–45, but also their subsequent impact on the political and popular consciousness of the Nordic nations. They also note (p. 5) that Scandinavia was ‘anything but a backwater’ during the period—an assertion supported by even the most cursory examination of contemporary source material.
The book then presents two overview chapters before moving on to various specific national case-studies. Books that teach students about commonalities and transnational elements in Scandinavian history, although becoming more common recently, have traditionally been a rare commodity. It is important, therefore, that the overall regional context should be set out clearly at the start, and this is neatly achieved by Richard Overy’s contribution. Incidentally, Overy’s brief mention of Iceland (pp. 26–7) is a reminder of the one notable omission in the book. Patrick Salmon then gives a very brief ‘British Perspective’ on matters, as much a contemporary manifesto in support of Scandinavian Studies in British universities as a wartime overview, concluding with a plea for (p. 42) ‘more translation’, specifically ‘more good translation’ of Nordic historical research.
