Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2023 -

This eminently readable book is a valuable contribution to the ethnography of contemporary Sweden, focused on the myths and realities of European multiculturalism and the 20th-century African diaspora. Skinner (music and African American and African studies, Ohio State Univ.) focuses on the experiences and contributions of people of African descent living in Sweden. The book sticks closely to its source materials, rich stories collected by the author that form the basis for his analyses of the Afro-Swedish community and its relationship to wider Swedish society and culture. Skinner fruitfully draws from British cultural studies and postcolonial studies to situate his study of Sweden within wider discussions of race in an increasingly post-imperial world. Notably, "Sweden presents itself ... as doggedly anti-racist," but as Skinner notes, "many Swedes who are phenotypically non-European--that is, not white--share the experience of being labeled foreign." This will thus be essential reading for scholars focused on contemporary Sweden as well as those interested in the themes of race and ethnicity in recent European history.Summing Up: Essential. General readers through faculty.