Book review – Modern-Day Vikings

I recently finished reading Modern-Day Vikings: A Practical Guide to Interacting with the Swedes by Christina Johansson Robinowitz and Lisa Werner Carr. The book provides a brief history of the country and sets out to explain Swedish social democracy (‘cradle to the grave’ system) and cultural concepts such as lagom and jantelagen.

The book is aimed mainly at people moving to and doing business in Sweden from the USA, so perhaps they would see the cultural differences as more extreme than someone from elsewhere in Europe. Nonetheless, it seems to be a very useful guide that offers some insight into the country and its culture.

For me, reading it was a positive experience too after all the depressing statistics I had seen in previous weeks, as it suggested that maybe things will not be as complicated as I have made them to be in my head: my protection mechanism of always thinking through what the worst case scenario could be, so there is always upside – I guess I am a ‘glass is half empty’ girl then…

Back to the book: in one way I cannot say how useful the book actually is until I come to rely on what it is told me and put it to practical use next year but it was an interesting read. I would recommend it anyway, just for its descriptions of lagom and jantelagen – two rather complicated concepts for those who have not grown up in Scandinavia – and of the Swedish social system and culture.