Customer Reviews

Swedish Exodus

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"Swedish Exodus" is an indespensible reference for Swedish researchers. In these pages one can find out why so many Swedes decided to come to America, how they mananged it, where they emigrated to in America, how many came during each year of the mass migration, how many remigrated each year, how many came from each major Swedish district, and how they did in America. It even outlines the consequences of the emigration on Sweden. It is nicely indexed, contains a useful bibliography, and is illustrated with photos and drawings.

This book, written by a Swedish professor at Goteborg University, is a comprehensive study of the mass emigration of Swedes to the United States. It looks at who emigrated, their reasons for emigrating, their experiences both en route and in the United States, where they settled, and their effect on the United States and Sweden (both by leaving and, in some cases, returning). Along the way, the author uses many words from the emigrants themselves, drawn from letters and diaries, allowing them to speak to us themselves.

I can't say enough about this book. I enjoyed the book immensely, feeling as though it answered all of my questions. So, if you are interested in the Swedish immigrants to the United States, then you must read this book.

Being of Swedish descent I always wondered why my forebears came here. Now I know. Concise. Not wordy. Good for someone that wants a good simple explanation of the Swedish Exodus.

The chapters of this book set out the points of major importance about Swedish emigration to America. This is good as a place to start reading about Scandinavian emigration studies and its solid selected bibliography is helpful for guidance to more academic works.

Although the first Swedes to come to America founded their own colony bordering what later became Philadelphia and stretched into New Jersey in 1638, it was not until over two hundred years later in the 1850's that Swedish immigration to America reached a substantial level. This books tells the interesting story of how over a million Swedish immigrants, from 1851 to 1930, came to establish themselves in the United States. Included are accounts of a number of immigrant histories and how they came to settle in various parts of our country, usually in the Midwest. One learns that Sweden in those days was far from the progressive nation that we now know, but instead a heavily stratified society lacking in religious freedom outside of the state-sanctioned Lutheran church. Not only did many Swedes find the freedom and opportunity that they sought in America, their immigration had a lasting influence on Sweden itself as it moved towards becoming a more attractive country for its existing citizens--thereby dissuading them from voting with their feet and leaving the old country for America's beaconing shores.

As a descendant of Swedish immigrants, I decided to write my U.S. history term paper on their journey to the States using "Swedish Exodus" as my primary source. This book provides an abundance of interesting information. It covers everything from the push and pull factors that sparked the "exodus" to the extent of the influence of Swedish culture in America at the conclusion of the mass Swedish oversea migration. I highly recommend this book for anyone writing a paper on this topic or who is genuinely curious about this historical Scandinavian move.