Scandinavia is often looked upon as a unit, yet surprisingly little has been written about the common history of its various countries. Historically and ethnically, the area is comparatively homogeneous, in part because the Scandinavian peninsula provides natural borders. It also gives rise to separate centers: the Norwegian population looks out on the Arctic Ocean, while the Swedish face the Gulf of Bothnia; between Norway and Sweden lies a range of mountains. Contacts between towns on the east coast of Sweden and those on the west coast of Finland have occurred, with the sea forming a link-and for hundreds of...

How important it is to trace the development of eugenics in each Scandinavian country can be debated. Still, a reasonably good case can be made for examining Denmark, which in many ways offers useful contrasts to the other countries that so far have been studied in detail: the United States, Great Britain, and also, in recent years, Germany¹—all countries that were great powers at the beginning of the century, and where eugenics had a considerable following.

The fact that a country considered itself a great power, or a power sliding from first to second rank, was in itself a...

Among all the Nordic countries, Sweden was where eugenics met with its greatest success. This is true both in terms of the early institutionalization of the movement and the eugenic practice as it was manifest in sterilization policies between 1930 and 1960. This relative success is connected with the unusually rapid development of Sweden from a nation with an agrarian economy to an industrialized urban society, hence from a culture dominated by traditional Lutheran Christian values to one dominated by a secularized and modern lifestyle. As this essay aims to show, eugenics in Sweden is linked to both these traditions...

Much of the recent historiography of eugenics is built on an instrumental interpretation of science. Science is seen as a tool by which society achieves its economic and social aims, while its role in the cultural and political activities which form these aims is neglected. Efficiency and not truth becomes the purpose of science. This conception of science as an expression of “instrumental reason” which aims to “rationalize” social activity was developed in particular by German philosophers and social scientists around the beginning of the twentieth century. Max Weber’s ideal of a “value-free” and means-oriented science and a deep distinction...

Finland passed sterilization legislation in 1935 as part of a general Nordic movement, following Denmark (1929) and Norway (1934), with a Swedish sterilization law also coming into effect in 1935. Why was Finland willing to adopt such a eugenic legislative program?

Finland’s position is particularly interesting for two reasons: there was an influential Swedish-speaking minority in the country which considerably influenced the development of eugenic thinking; and the country did not gain its independence until 1917 and was still in the process of building national confidence in the 1930s.

From 1809 to 1917 Finland was an autonomous Grand Duchy of...

Two waves of interest in eugenics affected Scandinavia, much like those in Britain.¹ The first wave peaked just before World War I, the second in the 1930s and 1940s. Eugenics was a significant issue of social policy and there was extensive public interest in the topic. Eugenics organizations, however, were weak. It was an area for expertise rather than democratic politics. Sweden was the only country with a national eugenics society. In the other countries various organizations with social causes took on some of the same tasks, for instance, the Association of Public Health in Swedish-speaking Finland, and there were...