The Complete History of Scandinavia

Covering Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Vikings, and More

De: Christopher Hughes

Narrado por: Thomas Rode

Explore Scandinavia from the comfort of your home with this ultimate collection!

Have you always wanted to uncover more about the incredible history of Scandinavia? Are you searching for a thorough, all-in-one guide to exploring Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Finland? Then, this book is for you!

With a rich and fascinating history, beautiful landscapes, vibrant cultures, and friendly people, Scandinavia is a magical place which has become the go-to destination for tourists around the world. From their history of Vikings and vicious wars to the industrial revolution and their place in the modern world, Scandinavia truly has an incredible story to tell.

Dating back to the earliest human inhabitants, this brilliant collection unveils Scandinavia in an all-new light, examining their arduous and often-difficult climb through history to where they are today. Covering their history during the Middle Ages, their alliances through the World Wars, and their modern people and culture, The Complete History of Scandinavia offers you an unparalleled look at this amazing location.

Inside this collection, you’ll uncover:

• The exciting history of Vikings, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and much more!

Perfect for students, avid travelers, or anyone interested in the complex history of Scandinavia, The Complete History of Scandinavia lets you gain a deep and profound understanding of their past, the present, and where they might be in the future.

Ready to begin exploring Scandinavia? Then scroll up and buy now!

©2021 Christopher Hughes (P)2021 Christopher Hughes

Informative and interesting

I learned a lot about the history of these five countries, and how their histories intertwine. When I think of Scandinavia, I think of the Vikings, but they are much more than that.

A narrated Wikipedia article

This is a good book if you want a quick 2.5 hour audiobook on just one of the included countries: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, or Iceland.

The book is structured into silos, so rather than seamlessly telling about the history of Scandinavia, it tells the stories of each country in full, but sequentially. That means you get to hear the same information about the Protestant reformation five separate times.

Much of the book reads like the CIA world fact book. “Iceland has the third largest alcohol consumption per capita.” The post World War Two portions of the book are very slim, except for Sweden’s modern section which was about twice as long as the rest.

Many parts of the book had a voice closer to a college essay than a history book. I’m especially resentful of one line near the end that went something like “recently potatoes have become a popular crop in Iceland because they are the one vegetable that can grow under ground. Are you sure about that?

As an audiobook critique, I found some of the name pronunciations to be odd choices. Gothenburg for example was pronounced “Goat-enburg” which is neither the English or Swedish pronunciations.

I want to give it an overall two stars but I think that’s a bit unfair even if I spite-read the last 15% of the book so I could leave this critical reveal.

Interesting

The culture (not the lgbtq part), the isolation and more importantly, the nature and landscape of this countries are interesting.

Kai

Great introductory book to Scandinavian history. Only thing I’d say is I think I could have done less with the modern history and more ancient history.

A vibrant telling of Scandinavia's rich history!

This audiobook leaves no stone unturned. Taking the listener on a journey far into the past, back to a time when the beautiful castles were born. Deeply informative, you will learn not only about the lands history, but the origins of this country's wonderful people as well. Highly engaging, this isn't you normal history lesson.

Come for the Vikings … stay for the history

At a little more than 90 mins for each topic, you don’t really get the “complete” picture; however, you do get a good summary that hits the high points and was fun to listen to. I would have liked a lot more prehistory, but there was at least some review of the primitive peoples that originally settled the area. In the end, there was enough missed that I still felt that I don’t have a good picture before the advent of the Viking age. At that point the history is pretty good; weaving the history of each nation into the rest to make a solid view of Scandinavia after that. This is perfect in you don’t actually know much about Scandinavia and entertaining if you know some … and mostly a waste if you have any depth here.

1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Sweden
4. Norway
5. Iceland

I was given this free advance listener copy (ALC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TheCompleteHistoryOfScandinavia #AudibookFree

Uneven, shallow and flawed

While Hughes tells his story reasonably well for the parts that interest him, he leaves huge holes when he's not. He sometimes dismisses entire centuries (post 1500) in a few sentences. Even more glaring is when his biases take over, such as concerning the relationship between Sweden and Russia. Then it is hard to avoid the impression that he must have gotten his degrees (whatever they may be) in Moscow...