The economy affects us all. In Lars Magnusson’s book Från landskapslagar till statsliberalism: det ekonomiska tänkandet i Sverige (From landscape laws to state liberalism: economic thinking in Sweden), the reader can learn about the nature and development of economic thinking in Sweden from the Middle Ages until the middle of the 19th century. The book was published in September 2022 and the author is a Professor of Economic History at our University.
And now we turn to heavier matters... Elin Bjarnegård and Pär Zetterberg are editors of the book Gender and Violence against Political Actors, published in May 2023. An increasing number of testimonies have appeared from female politicians who have been victims of violence, along with people who have been victims of conflict-related sexual violence and survived. In this book, the many authors involved try to understand how gender affects both physical and psychological forms of violence and how sexual violence affects both men and women. Bjarnegård is a senior lecturer at our Department of Government and visiting researcher at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, while Zetterberg is a senior lecturer at the Department of Government.
Enförälderfamiljer: om ensamstående föräldrar, singelföräldrar och soloföräldrar (One-parent families: on single and solo parents) is the title of another book published in May 2023. Its editors are Helena Wahlström Henriksson, Professor of Gender Studies at Uppsala universitet and Disa Bergnehr from Linné University. The book forms part of the research project entitled "Ensamstående föräldrar i svenska medier” (Single parents in Swedish media). The purpose of the book is to highlight the various meanings and nuances, normalities and abnormalities, values and feelings around experiences of being a single parent. The authors also examine depictions of single-parent family life in literature, film and other media from the 1930s to the present. Among the participating authors from Uppsala University are Margareta Fahlgren, Professor Emerita in Literary Studies, Elina Nilsson from the Centre for Gender Research and Anna Williams from the Department of Literature.
“Navigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse” – “To sail is necessary, to live is not necessary”, said Pompey to the sailors who refused to set sail from Africa to Rome with grain in the cargo. I will leave it unsaid as to whether the officers in the new Swedish archipelago fleet ventured out into the storm or not. Lars Otto Berg, Esbjörn Larsson and Hans Norman have written a book entitled Officerarna i svenska skärgårdsflottan 1756-1824 (Officers in the Swedish archipelago fleet 1756-1824). The book, also published in May 2023, focuses on presenting the officers and their family situations, careers and commendations, along with the commitments they had outside their military service. Larsson is a Professor of History of Education, Berg had a Licentiate degree and was Doctores Honoris Causa and Norman is Professor Emeritus of History, all from Uppsala University.
On this occasion we will round off with some history of gardening. Early September 2023 saw the publication of the book Svensk trädgårdshistoria. 1800- och 1900-tal (Swedish gardening history, 1800–1900s). The book is the most recent part of the series on Swedish gardening and has six authors. One of them is Inger Olausson, horticulturist, horticultural and agricultural historian and educational developer at Uppsala University. This part of the series describes how our plantations reflect the period in which they appeared. It may also give us some hope that spring is certain to come.