<p>Nationalism during the early 20th century, was often shaped around efforts to create feelings of fellowship within the frontiers. Fellow feelings was considered as a necessity to convince the people that their efforts served mutual goals.</p><p>Beginning in the 19th century, the European nations experienced a great many projects for this purpose. In the early 20th century the efforts grew. The danger of war and the competition for economic power, contributed the increase of nationalist movements. At the same time, many influential intellectuals also expressed apprehensions about the urbanized way of life; measures were necessary to secure the future success of the nation.</p><p>The national movements in Sweden, played a prominent role in the creation of a greater patriotic feeling. This paper is about one of these movements: Swedish Tourist Association (STF), founded in 1885. Around the motto “Know your country”, STF promoted Swedish tourism aiming to spread knowledge of the country and its people.</p><p>Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities and Michel Foucault’s Discipline & Punish has influenced the interpretation of STF’s yearbooks 1908-1916. This paper aims at explaining STF’s activities as a combination of efforts to create fellow feelings among the Swedes, and efforts to discipline them to a healthier way of life.</p><p>STF’s vision was to construct mutual heartfelt emotions towards the Swedish nature. The sound nature was seen as a symbol for the sound nation. It was thereby desirable that the Swedes were given the opportunity to experience this nature. Tourism became a technique to solve both the need for Swedish fellowship and the need for healthy citizens.</p><p>Tourism placed the Swedish bodies in the Swedish nature, which disciplined them to mutual patriotic feellings for their beautiful country, and at the same time gave them the healthy constitution and moral strength that should characterize every Swede.</p>

<p>This paper is about skiing and Swedish nationalism during the late 19th century and early 20th century. The aim is to investigate why skiing was considered so eminently suited for the incorporation of certain ideals in the national fellowship.</p><p>The paper accounts an analyse of texts and documents about Swedish skiing from 1897-1924. Skiing was a nationalistic concern from the very beginning of this period. It was connected to heartfelt feelings towards the Swedish nature, the patriotic upbringing of the youth, as well as the health of the nation. Over the years skiing also became an increased object of sportification. The competitions were popular, and the nationalistic propagandists saw the contests as means to popularize the sport. Thereby they also hoped to attract attention to the national ideals which skiing was associated with – deep feelings for the nature, a strong youth suitable for military service, and a healthy population.</p><p>Reserachers interested in the history of Swedish sport, often understand the sportification as a gradual dissociation from the nationalistic ambitions. They admit that sports, especially skiing, was influenced by patriotic ideas. But when skiing became a larger object of competition, an ideology of competition gradually replaced the nationalistic strivings.</p><p>This paper understands skiing as an invented tradition, according to Eric Hobsbawm’s <em>The Invention of Tradition</em>. An invented tradition shows a formalization and ritualization of a practice. The healthy skiing in the magnificent Swedish nature, is in this paper understood as the ritualized part of the tradition, while the competitions are seen as the formalized part.</p><p>By understanding skiing as an invented tradition, this paper shows that an increased interest for competitions, and the establishment of an ideology of competition, by no means replaced the efforts influenced by a nationalistic ideology. Nationalism and the ideology of competition did not exclude each other. They both existed within the same tradition, a tradition which reflects the strivings of this historic period.</p><p>Skiing was eminently suitable for the incorporation of certain national ideals in the national fellowship: Skiing communicated the ideals of the nation, and the competitions gained interest for this sport and the ideals it was associated with. The increased interest for competitions represented an increased efficiency in the nationalistic strivings.</p>

Nationalism during the early 20th century, was often shaped around efforts to create feelings of fellowship within the frontiers. Fellow feelings was considered as a necessity to convince the people that their efforts served mutual goals. Beginning in the 19th century, the European nations experienced a great many projects for this purpose. In the early 20th century the efforts grew. The danger of war and the competition for economic power, contributed the increase of nationalist movements. At the same time, many influential intellectuals also expressed apprehensions about the urbanized way of life; measures were necessary to secure the future success of the nation. The national movements in Sweden, played a prominent role in the creation of a greater patriotic feeling. This paper is about one of these movements: Swedish Tourist Association (STF), founded in 1885. Around the motto “Know your country”, STF promoted Swedish tourism aiming to spread knowledge of the country and its people. Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities and Michel Foucault’s Discipline &amp; Punish has influenced the interpretation of STF’s yearbooks 1908-1916. This paper aims at explaining STF’s activities as a combination of efforts to create fellow feelings among the Swedes, and efforts to discipline them to a healthier way of life. STF’s vision was to construct mutual heartfelt emotions towards the Swedish nature. The sound nature was seen as a symbol for the sound nation. It was thereby desirable that the Swedes were given the opportunity to experience this nature. Tourism became a technique to solve both the need for Swedish fellowship and the need for healthy citizens. Tourism placed the Swedish bodies in the Swedish nature, which disciplined them to mutual patriotic feellings for their beautiful country, and at the same time gave them the healthy constitution and moral strength that should characterize every Swede.

This paper is about skiing and Swedish nationalism during the late 19th century and early 20th century. The aim is to investigate why skiing was considered so eminently suited for the incorporation of certain ideals in the national fellowship. The paper accounts an analyse of texts and documents about Swedish skiing from 1897-1924. Skiing was a nationalistic concern from the very beginning of this period. It was connected to heartfelt feelings towards the Swedish nature, the patriotic upbringing of the youth, as well as the health of the nation. Over the years skiing also became an increased object of sportification. The competitions were popular, and the nationalistic propagandists saw the contests as means to popularize the sport. Thereby they also hoped to attract attention to the national ideals which skiing was associated with – deep feelings for the nature, a strong youth suitable for military service, and a healthy population. Reserachers interested in the history of Swedish sport, often understand the sportification as a gradual dissociation from the nationalistic ambitions. They admit that sports, especially skiing, was influenced by patriotic ideas. But when skiing became a larger object of competition, an ideology of competition gradually replaced the nationalistic strivings. This paper understands skiing as an invented tradition, according to Eric Hobsbawm’s The Invention of Tradition. An invented tradition shows a formalization and ritualization of a practice. The healthy skiing in the magnificent Swedish nature, is in this paper understood as the ritualized part of the tradition, while the competitions are seen as the formalized part. By understanding skiing as an invented tradition, this paper shows that an increased interest for competitions, and the establishment of an ideology of competition, by no means replaced the efforts influenced by a nationalistic ideology. Nationalism and the ideology of competition did not exclude each other. They both existed within the same tradition, a tradition which reflects the strivings of this historic period. Skiing was eminently suitable for the incorporation of certain national ideals in the national fellowship: Skiing communicated the ideals of the nation, and the competitions gained interest for this sport and the ideals it was associated with. The increased interest for competitions represented an increased efficiency in the nationalistic strivings.