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This book deals with the lives of ten extraordinary women – Duchess of Atholl, Mary Brooksbank, Jane Welsh Carlyle, Elsie Inglis, Sophia Jex-Blake, Frances Balfour, Willa Muir, Mary Slessor, Madeleine Smith and Eliza Wigham. All of them were forced to make their way in an essentially patriarchal society. Their personal struggles for acceptance and recognition, often highly dramatic, provide an introduction to the wider issues facing women in these eras. Their stories also highlight aspects of femininity as it evolved over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: caring and nurturing, loving and sacrificing, work and family. Thus, the sum total of the stories provides a rounded picture of womanhood in modern Scotland.

This history of Sweden (Sverige) led by Per Albin Hansson during the Second World War (Andra världskriget) is intended both for English-speaking readers and Nordic readers in search of a key to the extensive Swedish-language historiography of the period. It provides them with a history of Sweden’s war-time Beredskapstiden experience that is both comprehensive and up-to-date.The book is divided into two Parts. In Part I chapters 1 and 2 analyse and discuss the pre-war development of Swedish policies, institutions, society and culture . Chapters 3 to 5 offer a comprehensive narrative account of wartime events and Swedish interactions with the great powers. Chapter 6 examines Sweden’s trading activity with the warring nations. In Part II, Chapters 7 and 8 two areas of external incursion into Swedish life, espionage and propaganda, and Sweden dealt with them. Chapter 9 concerns incursions of a different kind, by refugees, and Sweden’s changing role as a haven in war-torn Europe. The military resources and deployments underpinning Sweden’s ability to defend herself from attack are described in Chapter 10. Chapter 11, the deeper impact of war. Finally, the development of Swedish historiography for the period and subsequent controversies over Sweden’s ambiguous role and actions outlined and debated in Chapter 12.