Vilhelm Moberg (1898-1972) was one of Sweden's greatest writers of the twentieth century and is well known for his remarkable The Emigrants (1949), a four-volume epic tale of Swedish immigration to America. Paul Britten Austin is a translator and historian.Gunnar Myrdal (1898-1987) was an acclaimed Swedish economist and politician. He won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1974.

"Moberg succeeds in building up a picture of the medieval tiller of the soil that is full of insights and presented with a compassion, an enthusiasm and a freshness." -Times Literary Supplement "'The history of Sweden is the history of her commons' - such is the motto and theme of this highly personal history of Sweden by its best-selling novelist." -Library Journal "An absorbing narrative history . . . A humanistic observer, Moberg gracefully intermingles facts, informed suppositions, and source references." -Booklist

• ContentsForeword by Gunnar Myrdal The Author on his History The Swede as Bondsman The Swedish Peasant Celebrates his 5,000th Anniversary 30100 Kings Peasant Seafarers of the 9th Century The 300 Years' War A Family of Royal Criminals "You Have Blood in Your Crown, King Magnus!" The Ship of Death On Mediaeval People What the Provincial Laws relate Scandinavia's Greatest Monarch