Bringing Agrarian History to Global Future

In May this year, Professor Janken Myrdal and colleagues made history in two senses as their book titled “The Agrarian History of Sweden: 4000 BC-AC 2000” was published. For the first time ever, Swedish Agrarian History is now available in English.

The Swedish version consists of five volumes, a thorough series encompassing 2000 pages all in all. It took three years of preparation, three years of writing and another three years of supplementary work and revision to finish this book series. The much shorter English translation, only 300 pages long, did not require the same amount of time and work.

‘We’re part of Europe’
Professor Myrdal emphasises the importance of reaching out and spreading Swedish country life in the past to the rest of the world.

‘We’re part of Europe. We’ve advanced from a low level to contributing to raw products such as agricultural products. In the 19th century, for example, we exported oat-meal and butter to England.’

‘We’re creating a global culture with global discussions. We all have to take a position on questions such as the status of women and the environment. History plays an important role. We share the same questions but have different answers to them.’

His major international collaboration right now encompasses the entire world history. The global agrarian history during 1000 years is about to be written.

‘We’ll describe how global agricultural systems have changed over time. Man has affected the climate for a long time. There is a great interest among climate researchers for these issues.’

Book project presented in USA
In February this year, Professor Janken Myrdal along with two American and two Swedish colleagues, presented the project at the AAAS (The American Association for the Advancement of Science) Annual Meeting held in the USA. The five of them constitute the entire workforce for this project, which will result in a scientific paper and a book.

‘The environment is at the core of Agrarian History: deforestation, erosion and irrigation systems…’

Of course, to a researcher who wrote his doctoral thesis on medieval agriculture, the environment must always have been an important factor. He has read his source material in both Latin and Old Swedish, if required.

‘It’s been a great journey. We have to combine natural science with the humanities. That’s always been my credo,’ says Professor Janken Myrdal.