The Local Sweden • 3rd June 2019

How women's rights became human rights in Sweden

Sweden's rise to one of the most gender equal countries in the world did not occur because women won the "battle of the sexes", but rather because their access to equal rights benefited all of society.

The Activist History Review • 8th September 2017

Trump: A Pecuniary Barbarian in a New Gilded Age

Trump is what we might call a “pecuniary barbarian”: a member of the financial and social elite who, in the theory of Progressive Era economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen, “is of a parasitic character, and [whose] interest is to divert what substance they may to their own use, and to retain whatever is under their hand.”

A Bit of History • 25th March 2019

The Mother of the Green Book Ignored by History

While the Green Book has become something of a buzzword lately thanks to Hollywood, the “mother” of the essential guide for African Americans navigating Jim Crow America has been overlooked and all but lost to history.

Atlas Obscura • 21st August 2017

Skyddsmantelmadonnan / The Modern, Secular Virgin Mary Motif

Visitors fixing their gaze on the imposing towers of the medieval cathedral in Lund, Sweden may not realize it, but 12 little heads are closely watching their every move. Created to represent the future of mankind, they peer out from a split in the protective cloak of the Skyddsmantelmadonnan sculpture.

VIVA • 24th August 2018

The 19th Century Swedish Novel Missing from the Feminist Literary Canon

What Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin did for the abolition movement in the United States, Fredrika Bremer’s 1856 novel Hertha did for the women’s movement in Sweden. Bremer’s boldly feminist novel graphically illustrated women’s oppression under Sweden’s antediluvian laws, and prompted a heated public debate that contributed to emerging social and legal changes for women. It also inspired an arm of the Swedish women's movement that continues to advocate for women today.

The Local Sweden • 2nd May 2019

The controversy that brought US-Swedish relations to the brink

In early 1968, Sweden brought tensions with the United States to a head when it doubled down on its anti-Vietnam stance by granting asylum to four American military deserters.

A Bit of History • 3rd February 2019

The New Tropes of Women’s History are as Damaging as the Old

When writers broadly categorize and “market” women in history using terms like rebels, bad-asses, shady ladies, rejected princesses, etc., they are – unconsciously or otherwise – perpetuating the tradition of distorting women and their role in history.

The Local Sweden • 21st February 2019

The day Stockholm was bombed by the Soviet Union

Seventy-five years ago, Sweden's questionable wartime neutrality, a Russian spy, and three "missing" Soviet bombers led to devastation in Stockholm.

The Local Sweden • 9th May 2019

The woman who introduced undercover journalism to Sweden

In the early 1900s, a motorcycle-riding, tobacco-smoking young woman changed Swedish journalism and introduced a powerful new female role model to Swedish literature.

The Local Sweden • 21st March 2019

The scandal that made Charles Lindbergh's grandfather flee Sweden

Charles Lindbergh's 1933 visit to Sweden helps tell the story of how his grandfather fled the country 74 years earlier.

A Bit of History • 7th November 2018

Faces of Diversity in American First-Wave Feminism

Six little-known women from around the world – starting with a Russian-Jewish immigrant and ending with a French former chambermaid – who contributed to first-wave feminism in the United States.

A Bit of History • 12th December 2017

“Princess Qajar” and the Problem with Junk History Memes

Junk history is embodied perfectly in a recent viral meme that portrays a nineteenth-century Persian princess with facial hair alongside the claim that 13 men killed themselves over their unrequited love for her. While it fails miserably at historical accuracy, the meme succeeds at demonstrating how easily viral clickbait obscures and overshadows rich and meaningful stories from the past.

A Bit of History • 27th September 2018

LaGuardia’s Sister, Eichmann’s Prisoner, Ravensbrück’s “Mother”

A major New York City airport is named in honor of her brother, but Gemma La Guardia Gluck’s story of surviving Ravensbrück concentration camp as the political prisoner of Adolf Eichmann unjustly exists in the shadows of history.

The Local Sweden • 27th January 2019

How Stockholm is restoring dignity to the neglected graves of 100 Holocaust victims

In Stockholm's Northern Cemetery (Norra begravningsplatsen) is the large and well-maintained tomb of Count Folke Bernadotte, a member of the Swedish royal family whose role in negotiating the release and transport of some 21,000 prisoners of Nazi concentration camps to Sweden is well-documented. In the Jewish area of the cemetery not far away, lie the derelict and all-but-forgotten graves of 100 victims of the Holocaust. These were mostly very young women, who died not long after arriving i

The Local Sweden • 3rd August 2017

The Stockholm Holocaust memorial – A restoration of human dignity and a warning against inhumanity

...when looking at the columns of granite slabs listing the victims' names – grouped by the family name of the survivor or survivors who came to Sweden – along with their dates and places of birth and death, it is possible to comprehend how important a memorial like this is to the collective consciousness.

A Bit of History • 15th October 2018

When the Cult of Celebrity Devours Meaningful History

Katharine Houghton Hepburn helped American women secure the vote and reproductive freedom. Her daughter was a four-time Oscar winner. Chances are, you know about the actress, but not the activist.

History Writers Resist Trump • 14th February 2017

The art of toppling a bloated, greedy, dishonest political “boss”

If history can teach us something right now, it’s that the way to topple a bloated, greedy, inarticulate and dishonest political leader from New York who poses as a populist while perpetuating government cronyism is by revealing him to his base in a way they can understand.

The Local Sweden • 4th July 2017

History dies deep in the woods: The forgotten Nazi concentration camp survivors in the forests of Småland

History has a way of being forgotten, whether by accident or design, especially when it’s painful. Histories with straightforward and happy endings make us feel good about ourselves and more hopeful about the outcome of our own uncertain times. Those that lack resolution or defy the need for an optimistic conclusion frequently exist in varying degrees of figurative darkness – ignored, neglected, forsaken. Sometimes, the darkness is also literal – a place so tucked away from view that the eyes of the collective consciousness barely need to look away to forget.

A Bit of History • 25th January 2018

A President’s Son-in-Law, Nepotism and Treason

When the son-in-law of POTUS 2 John Adams used the valuable government position he had gained through nepotism to help a Venezuelan friend start a revolution against Spain, he threatened a precarious peace between America and Spain, and endangered the lives of unsuspecting American citizens. Two centuries later, it’s a salient reminder of how nepotism and politics can be a disastrous combination.

The Local Sweden • 11th April 2019

The day a naked Swedish footballer caused an unexpected scandal

In 1949, a Swedish football player made international headlines when he dared to bare in Brazil.