Intro -- Title -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- BODY AND ENLIGHTENMENT IN LATE 18TH CENTURY DENMARK -- Sensual enlightenment -- In the enlightened districts of southern Fyn -- The body in the searchlight -- The influence of Peter Villaume -- Health and physical education in late 18th-Century Copenhagen -- DISCIPLINE AND NATIONALISM: BODY, SPORT AND CULTURE IN 19TH CENTURY DENMARK -- Two body culture spheres - around 1800 -- The consequences of Nachtegall's victory -- A contra-factual question -- The Grundtvigian intention -- The rifle movement -- The rifle movement between left and right in the 1880s -- The "poor" sport -- Conclusion -- DECADENCE AND VITALITY: SPORT AND THE COLLECTIVE MENTALITY AROUND 1900 -- The cult of youth -- The cult of movement -- The desire for hardening - in moderation -- Johannes V. Jensen and the new formal vitalism -- A bodily democracy? -- "Tordenkalven" and handball -- PAINTING THE NEW BODY: FOUR NORDIC ARTISTS 1900-1914 -- Bodily aristocrats of everyday life -- Edvard Munch and the posing bathers -- Magnus Enckell and pure colours -- J.F. Willumsen, meaning and cosmos -- Eugène Jansson going sportive -- Body culture and Zeitgeist -- The body in shape -- THE "SUNSHINE OLYMPICS": STOCKHOLM 1912 -- NORDIC TRACK AND FIELD IN THE INTERWAR YEARS: A COMPARISON -- The opposition of gymnastics to athletics -- Gymnastics and ball games in Denmark around 1900 -- Sport and nation-building -- The special case of Finland -- Collectivist Danish sports -- Sweden - in the middle -- Conclusion -- HANDBALL IN RURAL DENMARK IN THE 1930s -- The breakthrough of sport -- Rural girls get going -- The beginnings in 1929 -- Civilizing the rules -- Between character development and coaching -- Towards common rules -- Mediation -- Summing up -- The context -- The result -- Conclusion.

SPORT AT THE FRONT: FOOTBALL AND NATION IN FINLAND DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR -- Background -- Purpose -- Warfare for what and whom? -- IR 61 -- IFK Vasa -- IR 61 and IFK Vasa - a successful couple -- Sport and nation building -- National levelling -- SPORT AND SPACE IN THE NORDIC WORLD -- Sports facilities in Halmstad - an example -- The development of space for sport -- Separation between sportsmen and spectators -- From multi- to mono-functional space for sport -- Permanent mono-functional space for sport -- The building of sports halls in the Nordic countries -- Centralizing the space for sports -- Facilities as sport promotor -- Team handball -- Badminton -- Ice hockey -- Conclusion -- LUTHERANS, CONFORMISTS, SOCIAL DEMOCRATS - AND ATHLETES -- Universalism or particularism -- The Nordic third way -- Associations and popular enlightenment -- The contribution of sport to the Nordic third way -- Conformity and its roots -- A Scandinavian model - or four different ones? -- "The great Scandinavian alliance" between state, society and citizens -- Conclusion -- REFERENCES -- Copyright.

It has been said that democratic populism is Scandinavia's gift to the modern world. But the critical role that sport has played in the development of this particular form of society has gone largely unremarked. In these ten essays, Niels Kayser Nielsen analyses how the growth of physical culture in the regions has both reflected and contributed to the parallel rise of Scandinavian nationalism during the last two hundred years.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.