Made in Sweden

What are the real Swedish Values? Who is the real Swedish Model?

In recent times, we have come to favour all things Scandi - their food, furnishings, fiction, fashion, and general way of life. We seem to regard the Swedes and their Scandinavian neighbours as altogether more sophisticated, admirable, and evolved than us. We have all aspired to be Swedish, to live in their perfectly designed society from the future.

But what if we have invested all our faith in a fantasy? What if Sweden has in fact never been as moderate, egalitarian, dignified, or tolerant as it would like to (have us) think? The recent rise to political prominence of an openly neo-Nazi party has begun to crack the illusion, and here now is Swede Elisabeth Åsbrink, who loves her country 'but not blindly', presenting twenty-five of her nation's key words and icons afresh, in order to give the world a clearer-eyed understanding of this fascinating country.

This quirky inventory of Swedish values explores the shades of grey behind the branding of Sweden as the shiny home of ABBA and Volvo ... But it's not all Bergmanesque gloom. Åsbrink also celebrates Swedes' sacred relationship with nature, the achievements of its social reformers and the indefatigable biologist Carl Linnaeus.
- Fiona Capp, Sydney Morning Herald

This handsome little book surveys the things that have made Sweden the place it is today, from the suffragette who was Jane Austen's "literary soul sister" to the "interesting lie" of Swedish neutrality during World War II.
- The Weekend West

A telling glimpse of the regimentation and conformity lurking beneath the shiny surface of Sweden's apparent utopia.
- New York Post