Gunnar Karlsson is Professor of History at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik. His work has covered a wide variety of subjects, from the medieval plague to relativism in history, and he is the author of a number of textbooks in Icelandic on the country's history.

For the first time in many years, a history of Iceland has appeared in English which really does its multifaceted subject justice. Beginning with colonisation around the year 870, it concludes with the year 2000, having taken the reader through Iceland's period of foreign domination, by the Norwegians, then the English and finally the Danes, who ruled the country until 1944. Politics, religion, economics and technological innovation are covered in detail, while the role of women and literature, ancient and modern, including, of course, the sagas, are also discussed

• Part 1: colonization and Commonwealth, 870-1260. Part 2: under the rule of foreign kings, 1264-1800; a primitive society struggles for independence, 1800-1918; a transformed society - the 20th century.

Gunnar Karlsson is Professor of History at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik. His work has covered a wide variety of subjects, from the medieval plague to relativism in history, and he is the author of a number of textbooks in Icelandic on the country's history.

For the first time in many years, a history of Iceland has appeared in English which really does its multifaceted subject justice. Beginning with colonisation around the year 870, it concludes with the year 2000, having taken the reader through Iceland's period of foreign domination, by the Norwegians, then the English and finally the Danes, who ruled the country until 1944. Politics, religion, economics and technological innovation are covered in detail, while the role of women and literature, ancient and modern, including, of course, the sagas, are also discussed

• Part 1: colonization and Commonwealth, 870-1260. Part 2: under the rule of foreign kings, 1264-1800; a primitive society struggles for independence, 1800-1918; a transformed society - the 20th century.

Gunnar Karlsson is Professor of History at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik. His work has covered a wide variety of subjects, from the medieval plague to relativism in history, and he is the author of a number of textbooks in Icelandic on the country's history.

For the first time in many years, a history of Iceland has appeared in English which really does its multifaceted subject justice. Beginning with colonisation around the year 870, it concludes with the year 2000, having taken the reader through Iceland's period of foreign domination, by the Norwegians, then the English and finally the Danes, who ruled the country until 1944. Politics, religion, economics and technological innovation are covered in detail, while the role of women and literature, ancient and modern, including, of course, the sagas, are also discussed

• Part 1: colonization and Commonwealth, 870-1260. Part 2: under the rule of foreign kings, 1264-1800; a primitive society struggles for independence, 1800-1918; a transformed society - the 20th century.