A Readership of Convenience: Macro-National Cooperation within the Scandinavian-Australian Newspaper Norden, 1896–1940

Abstract

ABSTRACT Between 1825 and 1930, almost three million Scandinavians left their homelands as part of a mass exodus from Northern Europe. While the majority established thriving communities in the United States, a small number settled across Australia and New Zealand. The Scandinavian-Australian newspaper Norden (1896–1940) was integral in connecting these most isolated immigrant communities to their homelands and each other. This article considers how Norden resurrected pan-Scandinavianism, a remnant collective ideology of the Romantic period, to foster a sense of collective goodwill and cultural similarity between Australia’s fragmented Danish, Swedish and Norwegian immigrant communities. The article argues that without the unifying power of macro-national cooperation, this unique newspaper and its vibrant readership of convenience would not have survived into the 20th century.