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Edited by Hauna Ondrey and Mark Safstrom, this Festschrift is a tribute for Philip. J. Anderson, longtime professor of church history at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, and president of the Swedish-American Historical Society for thirty years. The essays touch on three of Professor Anderson’s primary areas of research: the cultural and religious life of Swedish immigrants in America, wilderness and faith, and Lutheran Pietist and Covenant Church history. Each of these themes involves movement between distinct spheres: between an “old country” and a “new” one; between things considered sacred and secular; between human-built environments and “wild,” natural spaces; and between different denominational and theological contexts.

The liminal areas between two communities of overlapping influence are sometimes referred to as “borderlands,” inviting exploration of how one context, group, or entity influences and is influenced by another. The borderlands explored here include those between geographies, cultures, identities, and enduring values. The overarching questions raised in these essays include, “How does faith influence how we define community?” and “How does community influence how we define faith?”

We thank Professor Anderson for inviting us to probe these borderlands throughout his career, and for his work at North Park and with the Swedish-American Historical Society.

Between 1880 and 1920, emigration from Sweden to Chicago soared, and the city itself grew remarkably. During this time, the Swedish population in the city shifted from three centrally located ethnic enclaves to neighborhoods scattered throughout the city. As Swedes moved to new neighborhoods, the early enclave-based culture adapted to a progressively more dispersed pattern of Swedish settlement in Chicago and its suburbs. Swedish community life in the new neighborhoods flourished as immigrants built a variety of ethnic churches and created meaningful social affiliations, in the process forging a complex Swedish-American identity that combined their Swedish heritage with their new urban realities.

Chicago influenced these Swedes’ lives in profound ways, determining the types of jobs they would find, the variety of people they would encounter, and the locations of their neighborhoods. But these immigrants were creative people, and they in turn shaped their urban experience in ways that made sense to them. Swedes arriving in Chicago after 1880 benefited from the strong community created by their predecessors, but they did not hesitate to reshape that community and build new ethnic institutions to make their urban experience more meaningful and relevant. They did not leave Chicago untouched—they formed an expanding Swedish community in the city, making significant portions of Chicago Swedish. This engaging study will appeal to scholars and general readers interested in immigration and Swedish-American history.

By Thomas Tredway (Published by the Augustana Historical Society in partnership with the Swedish–American Historical Society, 2013) Cloth, 497 pages.

Conrad Bergendoff, a historian, theologian, ecumenist, educator and pastor, served as President of Augustana College from 1935-1962. The author, Thomas Tredway, served as President of the college from 1975-2003, and had earlier written “Coming of Age: A History of Augustana College, 1935-1975.“

Philip J. Anderson and Dag Blanck – Editors (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2012). Paper, 327 pp.

Seventeen essays by scholars from the United States, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark explore interactions among Swedish and Norwegian immigrants to America, focusing on themes of friendship and competition through the lenses of identity, language, religion, and politics.

By Marion Tuttle Marzolf. (Chicago: Swedish-American Historical Society, 2010). Paper, 253 pp.

The Society’s first historical novel tells the story of Lisa Lindholm, a single Swedish woman who emigrated to America in 1931 and her roles in Swedish and Swedish–American weaving and textile arts.

By William and Willow Hagans (Chicago: Swedish-American Historical Society, 2009). Cloth, 309 pages.

Anders Zorn (1860-1920), the famous Swedish artist, made seven trips to the USA. This book, complete with over 140 of his well-known paintings, etchings, and photographs, tells of these trips and much of Zorn’s life and work.

By Johan Risingh, edited by edited by Stellan Dahlgren and Hans Norman, translated by Marie Clark. (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1988) Cloth, 303 pages.

This book translates the journals of Johan Risingh, the last governor of the New Sweden colony along the Delaware River in colonial America.

By Ingrid Bergstrom. (Chicago: Swedish–American Historical Society, 2003). Paper, 184 pp.

This spirited and enthusiastic memoir tells the life and adventures of Ingrid Bergstrom. Ingrid and her husband Gösta emigrated to the United States after World War II, eventually settling in Chicago. They became involved with numerous Swedish–American organizations, several successful business ventures, and many fascinating adventures.

By Nils William Olsson and Erik Wiken. (Chicago: Swedish Pioneer Historical Society, 1967). Cloth, 628 pages

Dr. Olsson and Erik Wiken compiled lists of all known Swedish passenger arrivals in New York for the period 1820-1850, as well as a surprisingly large amount of personal information on many of the immigrants.

Edited by Nils William Olsson. (Vol. XI, No. 1, March 1991). Paper, 127 pp.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Swedish–American Genealogist, this double-sized edition was issued. It contains 12 articles on a variety of topics.

By Adolph Benson. (Chicago: Swedish Pioneer Historical Society, 1961) Cloth, 161 pages.

The memoir of a noted Swedish immigrant scholar and author, Adolph Burnett Benson (1881-1962), who was born in Skåne and eventually became a professor at Yale.

Edited by H. Arnold Barton. (Chicago: Swedish Pioneer Historical Society, 1974). Paper, 110 pp.

This book re-prints a special double issue of the Quarterly from 1974 (nos. 3-4) that honored Dr. Franklin D. Scott upon his retirement as the editor of the Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly.

By Olof Wijk, translated by Mikael Grut, notes by Nils William Olsson. (Winter Park, Florida: SAG Publications, 1998). Paper, 54 pp.

This book translates the diary of Swedish visitor Olof Wijk (1786-1856) from his 1829 trip to North America, a trip that occurred well before the start of the mass migration.

Edited by Holly Johnson. (Minneapolis: Swedish Council of America, 2004). Paper, 553, pages.

This book contains listings of nearly 1,000 Swedish–American and Scandinavian–American organizations and offices, including embassies, consulates, publications, and national and educational organizations in the United States, Canada, and Sweden.

Wheat Flour Messiah follows the career of Eric Jansson from his boyhood on a farm near Biskopskulla (Bishop’s Hill) in Sweden until his murder in Illinois by a crazed follower in 1850. He was an untutored but brilliant charismatic leader, who by sheer insolence and self-confidence defied both the Swedish state church and the secular government and persuaded some twelve hundred of his wheat flour customers to throw in their lot with him.

Two fateful events spelled the doom of this utopian dream. The first, the cholera epidemic of 1849, killed over two hundred of the colonists. The other was the arrival of John Root, who subsequently married Jansson’s cousin, Charlotte, and who, after a series of altercations with Jansson over Charlotte, shot him to death in Cambridge, Illinois. The colony did not long survive without its Prophet, and ten years later the utopian dream ended. Today Bishop Hill remains little changed from a century ago—a colorful memory of American beginnings, a vivid reminder of its fascinating past.

Dr. Elmén’s book tells for the first time the life story of a folk hero, Eric Jansson. The Bishop Hill Colony was clearly the lengthened shadow of this extraordinary man. Students of utopian colonies, teachers and students of American history and religious movements will find here a definitive account of this piece of the American past. Any reader interested in the American Dream will enjoy this account of a vanished people who thought they could find somewhere on earth a great, good place, and who had to learn after much suffering that one cannot express in waking reality the character of man in his dreams.

Edited by H. Arnold Barton (Chicago: Swedish-American Historical Society, 1995) Paper, 114 pages.

This book compiles articles from several sources on Peter Cassel and New Sweden, Iowa. Cassel led a group of Swedish immigrants to settle in the Iowa Territory in 1845, establishing the first Swedish settlement in Iowa and playing an important role in sparking further Swedish emigration to America.

By H. Arnold Barton (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1975) Paper, 348 pages.

Swedish immigrants tell their own stories in this collection of letters, diaries, and memoirs from the period 1940-1914—a perfect book for those interested in history, immigration, or just the daily lives of early Swedish-American settlers.

Edited by H. Arnold Barton (New York: Arno Press, 1979) 255 pages.

This book contains 18 different essays from different authors that first appeared in the Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly between 1959 and 1977.