The idea of the 'Swedish model' has been a widespread and enduring concept in the social sciences since the 1930s, associated with the political dominance of the Social Democratic Party, peaceful social development and a tradition of political consensus. Taking this exceptionalism as their starting point, the essays in this volume present new research on Swedish political movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which have been largely forgotten in history writing. The authors examine political outsiders in a double sense - both in their own time and in later historiography - and in doing so they contribute to a timely rethinking of the roots of contemporary Sweden.

The volume will be of interest not only to specialists in the Nordic region, but also to readers with interests in the history of European popular politics, radical movements, collective violence and anarchism.