The Difficult Life of the 19th Century Scandinavian Essay -- History,

In the empower day, Scandinavian countries are primarily viewed as prosperous, get on withive, and egalitarian societies. The citizens of these nations are more often than not urbanized and receive significant societal assistance from the welfare state. However, conduct in nineteenth century Scandinavia was markedly different. Scandinavian social bearing in the 1800s was defined by its provincial character, as the majority of inhabitants resided in rural agricultural communities. Society as a whole was intemperately stratified women had very limited social and economic opportunities and penury was widespread among Scandinavias special K citizens. Thus, life in 19th century Scandinavia was mostly difficult, and this fact is revealed in the books and films that chronicle social life during this time period.though Scandinavian nations are currently considered to be some of the most true countries in the world, 19th century Scandinavian societies were characterized by ri gid social hierarchies. As Nordstrom depicts in his history of Scandinavia, those who lived during this time period rarely advanced(a) beyond the social and economic positions that they were born into (Nordstrom, 2000 166). Vilhelm Mobergs novel The Emigrants provided illustrates this point through its portrayal of a rural Swedish parish in the mid 1800s. Moberg describes how generation after generation within a one family labored as farmers on the same land. He suggests that this pattern persisted for centuries, just to be disrupted by the mass migrations that took place in the meat of the 19th century (Moberg, 1949 xxvii). The information presented in Nordstroms book echoes the localise and provincial nature of Scandinavian villages described by Moberg. Before the technolog... ...en and the common laborer. Wealth and privilege were mainly dictated by birth and enjoyed by a select few. The agrarian masses, on the other hand, largely endured poverty and extreme hard ship. Womens lives were also tremendously difficult, as they had essentially zippo social or economic independence from men and minimal opportunities for education. The generally poor quality of life faced by most 19th century Scandinavians inspired many of these citizens to seek a better macrocosm by immigrating to America. Ironically, the countries that were left behind by these suffering immigrants are generally considered to have achieved a far higher quality of life than is experient by the average American. Considering the hard lives endured by most Scandinavians in the 1800s, the progress that has been made in this region over the past century is unfeignedly remarkable.