The world in the basement

This is an introduction to the international material in Swedish Labour Movement’s Archives and Library’s archives and collections. Originally a printed book, here presented as a digital downloadable digital version, scanned from the original. 

About the book

From its earliest beginning the Swedish labour movement has had contacts, relations and collaboration with the labour movement in other countries. This exchange and collaboration has left its marks on both the archives and collections of books preserved at the Labour Movement Archives and Library that social history research and, in particular, the historiography of the labour movement have been able to exploit over the years.

Our 100th birthday in 2002 was a natural occasion for presenting part of our material in more detail, particularly that of international import. The articles were written by our archivists and librarians.

Details on the digital version

Images have been removed for copyright reasons, however all captions remain. No OCR conversion has been implemented in the current version, which means you can not select or search within the text. For a Swedish version of the book, please visit the Swedish page of publications.

Download

The complete book

• The world in the basement (Pdf, 9.8 MB)

The separate articles

• Contents, and foreword by Karin Englund (Pdf, 111 KB)
  Introduction
• International archives material at ARAB / Martin Grass (Pdf, 317 KB)
  A treasure chest for research
• Scandinavian archives and collections / Martin Grass (Pdf, 544 KB)
  “The strongest bridge between the Nordic peoples”
• Scandinavo-American archives and how they were collected / Ulf Jönson (Pdf, 634 KB)
  “…and this union consists chiefly of Swedes”
• The German-speaking émigrés papers in ARAB’s stores / Martin Grass (Pdf, 888 KB)
  “Energy, good intentions and enthusiasm are sinking away in the quicksand of exile”
• The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 / Lucy Viedma (Pdf, 462 KB)
  “Everything you have done for us Spanish children will live in our memories for ever”
• The Soviet Union / Lars Gogman (Pdf, 886 KB)
  “The tears welled up unbidden in our eyes…”
• Vietnam in the collections / Lars Gogman (Pdf, 489 KB)
  “Le Phuong said he was grateful for my views”
• Chile in the collections / Lucy Viedma (Pdf, 480 KB)
  “Had we lived in Chile we would have been the ones imprisoned”
• Africa in the collections / Ulf Jönson (Pdf, 585 KB)
  “The peacocks are screaming in Kaunda’s garden”
• International collections and archives / Martin Grass (Pdf, 352 KB)
  “A vision of an alternative, better world”
• Peace and disarmament / Stellan Andersson (Pdf, 673 KB)
  “Madness is now becoming more widespread.”
• An international network of contacts in the archives of Alva and Gunnar Myrdal / Stellan Andersson (Pdf, 497 KB)
  “In England, we led an extremely frugal life”
• Correspondence with foreign authors and publishers in the archives / Mats Myrstener (Pdf, 593 KB)
  “It took me such a long time to get a novella together that I actually could not afford to do it.”
• International material in Hjalmar Branting’s papers / Martin Grass (Pdf, 690 KB)
  “Socialism is a force that no-one can surpass”
• Wilhelm Jansson’s papers / Martin Grass (Pdf, 607 KB)
  “We are only too well aware of the depth of gratitude we owe you”
• Rare books and pamphlets of 1848 – Year of Revolution / Marie Hedström (Pdf, 999 KB)
  “Oh people, thou shalt reign supreme!”

The book is available in print also. You can borrow it or buy it.