The old country and the new : Perceptions of Sweden and America among Swedish emigrants 1859-1909

This master thesis in History of Science and Ideas explores ideas held by Swedishimmigrants to the United States during the period 1859-1909: their opinions about the newlife in America compared to the life they had before in Sweden. Previous researchindicates that Swedish immigrants in general had a positive view on the possibility tosupport themselves by working in America, contrasted to the limited possibilities to do soin Sweden. Furthermore, they were attracted to America since workers there wereconsidered as equals to persons from upper social classes. Yet, Swedes also had to adaptto the new culture, for example by learning English. The immigrants did not likeeverything about America but most of them wanted to stay there for the rest of their life.The results in this study points to the same conclusions but the source material usedletterswritten by (mainly) workers- makes it possible to take the analysis a bit further, insome respects