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"The Rise of Little Big Norway" explores the unlikely rise of Norway from peripherality to today’s global steward with an enviable work-life balance, influential oil fund and Arctic front-row seat. Drawing on wide-ranging source material, John Ross’s original approach combines astute observation, thoughtful analysis and a flowing essay style, leavened with the comparative insight that only a seasoned observer of the region can bring. The book examines the settings, histories and niche elements that lend Norway its distinctiveness and differentiate it from its Nordic neighbors. It gives special attention to the northern and Arctic dimensions of Norwegian life and elaborates a connecting thematic thread, the mobility that once took Vikings across the Atlantic in open boats and makes today’s Norwegians the most-traveled people on the planet. The result is a carefully crafted general study of Norway, a country long overlooked in favor of its Nordic neighbors but now a quiet force in its own right and a touchstone for twenty-first century issues ranging from identity politics to the Arctic melt. This book fills a major gap in the literature on Norway and the Nordic region.
The Norwegian-American -- Review
“Norway is a country easily overlooked by others and a country easily taken for granted by its natives. With this excellent book, the world now has an advanced and detailed introduction to one of the strangest places on Earth, by an author who deeply understands both natives and travelers to the country.”
—Dag Einar Thorsen, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of South-East Norway
"The highly ambitious, nuanced and compelling book covers a vast swath of history in its attempt to articulate how the sparsely populated, agriculturally difficult, weather-beaten nation that lived for centuries beneath the colonial thumb of its neighbors, became a quiet giant on the global stage, filling britches far bigger than many of its European counterparts and heaving its influence (and its tourists) in far flung corners of the earth. — Andy Meyer, https://www.norwegianamerican.com/rise-of-little-big-norway/, published May 7, 2020"
John F. L. Ross, based in Oslo, writes on Nordic, Arctic and international affairs and teaches as an adjunct professor at the American College of Norway. An experienced Scandinavian observer, he has worked in the publishing world as an editor and feature columnist, and has held academic positions at universities in Sweden, Finland and the United States. Ross has published four books and a range of scholarly studies along with extensive popular commentary for the international press.
Preface; Part I Settings; 1. Little Big Country; 2. A Directional Puzzle; 3. Meanings of North; Part II Histories; 4. A Fractured Timeline; 5. Long Night’s Journey into Day; 6. Norway and the Dazzling Dutch; 7. The Union of Weights and Wings; 8. A Sporting Start; Part III Perennials and Currents; 9. Reluctant Unionists; 10. Well and Truly Oiled; 11. The Meaning of Nobel; 12. Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.