In this book a group of 16 scholars explore the changes that have taken place in the conception of the Nordic North during the 18th century, changes that were a symptom of an ambivalent understanding of the North vis-a-vis the South. From antiquity to Montesquieu, the North could be considered a Dystopia and a Utopia - a barbaric margin of Europe, but also an area of freedom, natural strength, and robust women who were any man's equal. The book, drawing on travel accounts of the period, is thus historical, but is conceived under the optics of modern multiculturalism and cultural clashes. The...