Swedish American Genealogist

Volume 34 | Number 2 Article 13

6-1-2014 Book Reviews

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag Part of the Genealogy Commons, and the Scandinavian Studies Commons

Recommended Citation (2014) "Book Reviews," Swedish American Genealogist: Vol. 34 : No. 2 , Article 13. Available at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag/vol34/iss2/13

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Swedish American Genealogist by an authorized editor of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Book Reviews Here you will find information about interesting books on the immigration experience, genealogical manuals, books on Swedish customs, and much more. We welcome contacts with SAG readers, suggestions on books to review perhaps. If you want to review a book yourself, please contact the SAG Editor, at so we know what you are working on. A film review Everlasting Moments (Maria Lars- sons eviga ogonblick), 131 minutes, Amazon.com $25.49 plus shipping, or watch on Amazon instant video. hide when he comes home late after not leave him in spite of his brutal- drinking. ity because she holds to her vows of This film is a 2008 Swedish drama Maria has won a camera in a lot- "until death do us part" and wants to with English subtitles, directed by tery soon after her marriage but, not keep her family together. Children Jan Troell. He was the director of the knowing what to do with it, she has keep coming along with regularity The Emigrants and The New Land hidden it away among her things. It with more mouths to feed and rent in the 1970's, the Swedish epic of Vil- is an early bellows-type camera with to pay. helm Moberg's account of Swedish glass plates, a good camera for its Sweden's mobilization for World immigrants to Minnesota in the mid- time, but complicated to use and to War I causes Sigge to be drafted into nineteenth century. handle and to develop pictures with the army in 1914 and his meager This film takes place in the first chemicals in a darkroom. This cam- income from dockwork, labor, ma- decades of the twentieth century era is to become the key to the trans- sonry work, and other odd jobs is lost beginning in the year 1911, and cen- formation of Maria from a battered to the family. Thanks to the kindness ters around a working family in the wife to a creative person with spe- of Mr. Pedersen in providing her with city of Malmo, a port city in the south cial artistic talent. She takes the more equipment, she is able to sup- of Sweden. Maria Larsson lives with camera to a photographer's studio to port her family by taking marriage her husband Sigfrid (Sigge), in a tiny try to pawn the camera to feed her photos and family photos, now in- apartment; Maria works as a clean- family, but is persuaded by the creasingly popular in Sweden. Sigge ing woman and as a seamstress and photographer, Sebastian Pedersen, to comes home from his army posting, Sigge is a dockworker. At the begin- borrow it back and learn to use it and and Mr. Pedersen later returns to ning of the film they have three to develop the photos she takes. Denmark to be closer to his family. children and by the end Maria has Timidly at first, she takes a few I do not wish to reveal the whole had seven. Maria is a shy woman and pictures and after a time has some story, but the film comes to a brighter Sigge, a good-hearted man when so- success in selling a few of her photos. ending than many other Swedish ber, is not able to handle his drinking She has a "gift for seeing," Pederson films. Although Maria dies within problem and becomes brutal when tells her, and encourages her to about ten years, probably of con- drunk. The children fear him and continue. sumption, the older children are /*" ^> It is apparent that Pedersen ad- admitted to college and seem des- SALE! mires and cultivates her talent and tined for a good future. Sigge has she is deeply appreciative of his inter- built up a drayage business based on Swedish Voters in est. He is older than she and always his having adopted a neglected horse Chicago 1888 polite and proper with her, but they a few years before, and becomes a By Nils William Olsson develop a deep affection for each much more reliable father and provi- 302 pages of Swedes, other. Her husband Sigge becomes der. But the real story is about Ma- comments, and indexes. suspicious, however, and tries in ria, who evolves from a shy, sub- every way, including threats on her missive housewife with little percep- $10 +$5S&H life, to make her give up her interest tion of her own worth, to an ac- Contact Jill Seaholm at and her camera. He continues with complished professional of great tal- . his drinking and his woman-chasing, ent. She has, with Sigge's help, and she refuses to be bullied. She will acquired and renovated a studio for

26 Swedish American Genealogist 2014:2 Book Reviews Swedish with women and economics. Domestic Secrets:Women & Property in Swe- women's rights den, 1600-1857 chronicles changes to married women's property rights and 1600-1857 deals with the unintended conse- her photography business, which quences of the erosion of legal rights. continues to grow. Domestic Secrets: Women & Prop- The public sphere of influence - The story is beautifully told by Jan erty in Sweden, 1600-1857, by Ma- including the wife's family and the Troell and the cast with great sensi- ria Agren, University of North Carol- local community — held sway over ina, 2009, 285 pages, bibliography, spousal property rights throughout tivity and attention to details. It has map, and illustrations. won several awards at foreign film most of the seventeenth century. A- round 1700 creditors and lawyers festivals and been nominated for a Maria Agren is a professor of history number of others. To quote one re- campaigned to codify spousal prop- at Uppsala University and author or erty rights as an Arcanum domes- viewer, "Beholding Troell's exquisite editor of four previous books dealing images is like having your eyes al- ticum, or domestic secret. Their ef- most washed, the better to behold moving pictures of uncorrupted pur- ity and clarity." The story is based on the life of a family member of Agneta Add to your family history Ulfsater Troell, Jan's wife, who wrote a novel about her relative, the real Learn what Sweden and America were like Maria Larsson. Troell thought it was when your ancestors emigrated a story worth telling, and this film is the result. To add to the convincing Join the Swedish-American reality of the time of the story, it was filmed in 8 mm. black and white, then Historical Society enlarged to 35 mm in order to achieve a soft, slightly grainy look to the Four issues a year of the Swedish-American images. Historical Quarterly, plus dividend books For genealogy enthusiasts and those interested in the history of The Society' latest book is Conrad Bergendoff's Sweden in this early period of the Faith and Work: A Swedish-American Lutheran, Industrial Age, the film offers a very 1895-1997, by Thomas Tredway. convincing portrayal of the lives of the working poor who, rather than For more information, write immigrating to America or else- where, remained in Sweden and had Swedish-American Historical Society to find a way to make their living in 3225 W. Foster, Box 48 the emerging cities as they grew and Chicago IL, 60625 absorbed the population of the earlier rural communities and farms. Along or see www.swedishaniericanhist.org the way we see strikes and strike- Mention the Genealogist when you join or order books breakers, the pressures of Marxism and socialism, and relations between the working classes and their betters, the rise of temperance societies, and other features of these decades early in the twentieth century. Viewers will be well rewarded by seeing this fine film. Dennis L. Johnson

Swedish American Genealogist 2014:2 27 Book Reviews contributions to society by men and of facts and real people. The story is women, usage of land, and the aboli- mostly told by Andrew Palm (b. 1839), tion of lineage property. whose mother was Annika (Anna) of Multiple issues of inheritance are the title. His father was Anders An- covered in the book, including the dersson from Barkeryd, a brother of treatment of spouses and children, Gustaf Palm and Svante Palm. When the different treatment of inherited Anders, his wife, and six sons im- forts led to regulatory changes that property and acquired property, and migrated in 1848 on the Augusta, reduced the amount of control a the variations of inheritance prac- they all changed their surname to woman's natal family could exert tices between classes of society and Palm. The Palm brothers were sibl- over her land and her husband's between urban and rural areas. ings to Margareta Andersdotter, born choices. But the new rules made Also included in the volume are a 1795 in Barkeryd, who was the mot- families less likely to give land to historical chronology of inheritance her of Sven Magnus Svensson, born women and insulated property mat- practices, a glossary of Swedish 1816, also in Barkeryd. He im- ters from community input. words, notes, a source bibliography, migrated in 1836 and in 1838 settled The advent of the print medium and an index. in Texas, where he became a famous ushered property issues back into the Janet Frye land owner under the name S.M. public consciousness, this time on a Swenson. national scale. The press's focus on This review was first published in "Tid- The Palms, including Margareta private scandals exposed domestic ningen," 2014/2, the quarterly newslet- Andersdotter, also went to Texas, but secrets of finance and property as ter of the Swedish Genealogical Society first there is a vivid description of life well as the failures of husbands to of Minnesota, USA, and is reprinted here in Sweden, the deliberations before perform culturally defined duties. with permission. they decided to join the relatives in Editor's note: A new edition of this Mass politicization increased sym- book was published in 2014, 304 pages. Texas, and a long tale about the pathy for women and public debate Available in paperback from Amazon, months spent at sea before they popularized more progressive ideas com, price $36.95. landed in Boston on 9 Oct. 1848. about the economic contributions of Next they continued by other ships women to marriage, leading to mid- to Texas, where they met with S.M. nineteenth-century legal reforms Swenson, and stayed for some time that were more favorable to women. Early settlers with him, before they got a place of The final chapter, entitled "Drastic their own. Then the father Anders Changes deals with Marital Rights," in Texas Palm died after just a few days of the relationship between the sexes, Anna's Journey. A story of Early !. y ••* •:' Swedish Immigrants to Texas, by ' is '; Elroy Haverlah. 2014, 333 pages. |Uf; f 4,: Available from Amazon.com, price $13.49. '> ^ > T About the author: Elroy Haverlah is Annasjoumey "1t a native Texan who has lived in vari- ous locations across the state and served as a minister for over four de- cades. Half of that was spent at Palm Valley Lutheran Church in Round Rock, Texas, a congregation founded by Swedish pioneers. His personal conversations with descendants of those settlers, plus extensive re- search, led him to a deep appreci- ation of those immigrants and a desire to share the story of their jour- ney. This is indeed a novel, but based

28 Swedish American Genealogist 2014:2 Book Reviews nia, New Jersey, Maryland, and Washington, B.C. SAG needs Your help! There are evidently many more We regard the reviews as a very places to visit than I though possible, important part of SAG, as the and every place has this nice color readers are spread all over the phot, and a short history of the place U.S., Canada, and Sweden and a and with Visitor information, with a lone subcriber even in Australia. illness, and the widow and six sons full address, open hours, e-mail and For all of them it is very diffi- have to struggle on their own. web address (if there is one), so it cult to keep track of the many This book is an engaging read and should be easy to access these places. interesting books (and movies) you get to feel the hardships that In total a good book for the area, that are published with a Swed- Anna and her children go through. even if you do not live there, and at a ish or Swedish-American theme. And then comes the Civil War... very good price also. Kudos to Kim- We need you to keep your eyes I think this is an interesting book, Eric and Kenneth for this book! open. And we are extremely not just for those with Texan con- Elisabeth Thorsell pleased if you will write a review nections, but for all that have early and send it to the SAG editor. immigrants. Elisabeth Thorsell Family histories, church his- tories, local group histories, and lodge histories are among the Places to visit NEW things we would like to present in SAG. And all in English. in New Sweden SWEDEN A good book review contains the full title of the book, name of New Sweden on the Delaware, by author, year of printing, name of Kim-Eric Williams, photos by Ken- publisher, where it can be bought, neth S. Peterson. Hardcover, 127 and the price of the book. pages, 247 pictures in full color, Send all book reviews to the 2013. Available from The Swedish SAG editor! Colonial Society, link on p. 30. Price Elisabeth Thorsell $25 + Shipping. SAG editor This new book on New Sweden is full of very good pictures of all the places you can visit with a New Sweden connection in Delaware, Pennsylva- New and Noteworthy (short notes on interesting books and articles) Swedish kock Tina Nordstrom has just published a new book: Tina Nordstrom's Scandinavian Cooking: Simple Recipes for Home-Style Scandinavian Cuisine. Hardcover, illustrated, 384 pages. Available at Amazon.com for $20.76. In The Swedish-American Historical Quarterly 2014:2, there is an interesting story by James A. Bailey and Margaret B. Bailey about the 1876 bank robbery in Northfield, MN, when Nicolaus Gustafsson was shot. The authors try to find out who exactly killed him. They suggest that relatives of Gustafsson should have him exhumed, so it would be possible to decide the caliber of the bullet that took his life. In an 2006:3 article in SAG, by Swedish authors Magnus Ekstrand and Birger Bring, gang member Cole Younger is pointed out as the killer. The debate continues, who killed Nicolaus? The Swedish National Archives (Riksarkivet) has for several years published a yearbook on a specific theme, all in Swedish. This year the theme is World War I in Swedish Archives. One of the articles is called "He left everything and went to war," Swedes in the Canadian army, by Anette Sarnas. At least 1754 men were recorded as having been born in Sweden, and a couple of hundred of them died in the war.

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