This book is a summary based upon a total of five monographs dealing with Swedish agrarian history which were published in Swedish between 1998 and 2003. In chapters written by different Swedish experts in the field, the period from the introduction of agriculture around 3800 BC until the present time is covered. On the whole, the authors present a vivid picture of the present state of research into Swedish agrarian history. With the help of recent archaeological results, we are updated concerning the introduction of agriculture in Sweden and how it spread. We also gain a good picture of how ecological, technological, social and cultural factors helped to create an agricultural system which is still functioning and can be observed in Sweden today. Step by step we follow the introduction of new technologies and forms of organisation, propelled by population change and influences from abroad. It is clear that Sweden early on developed an agriculture which built on a combination of animal rearing and cultivation of plants.

For natural reasons it was only in restricted areas that a fully developed field system was inaugurated. Over the centuries, a complicated division of labour between areas with predominantly arable and corn production emerged. As in many other areas in Western Europe, Sweden experienced an agricultural revolution in the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century which resulted in a rapid growth of production caused in part by the introduction of new technology but also through land reclamation. Huge areas of previously unused land were put under the plough during the nineteenth century. Without doubt this agricultural revolution was an important factor behind what then followed: the rise of industry and long-run economic growth which eventually created modern Sweden. In the last chapters of the book we can follow how modern agriculture was introduced by means of chemical fertilizers and machinery. The book ends with a chapter which deals with the indeed radical transformations that have taken place from the 1950s and 60s as a consequence of increasing global competition and political pressures.

It is easy to be impressed by the wide approach which most of the authors take concerning the history of Swedish agriculture: they successfully cross the boundaries between technological, economic, social and cultural history. Their aim is not only to give a chronological presentation of developments over time; they also seek to explain agricultural change and put it in a historical context which includes other sectors of the economy. This volume is thus highly recommended to those who seek a better understanding of how Swedish agriculture has developed. There is, however, one thing that could have been elaborated further in this book. Unfortunately the question of how the Swedish path of development compares with other national or regional cases is never tackled in a systematic way. To what extent can we speak of Swedish exceptionalism? Or was its path of development merely a reflection of processes taking place elsewhere? Without doubt a more comparative approach would have brought insights which could have fertilized our understanding of general processes but also of the particular Swedish experience.