Today I learned that Norwegian peasants and farmers in the 18th century read a lot more than we have previously thought. The idea of “The Reading Peasant” was long considered to be a National Romantic myth, meant to build up under another myth — that of Norwegians being free, despite being a Danish colony and later the private property of the Swedish king. Norwegian peasants weren’t supposed to be like peasants from other parts of Europe, who lived in feudal subjugation and ignorance. Instead, Norwegians were enlightened, independent, and, as said above, free.

This naturally seemed like a fine myth to debunk, and generations of historians have done this. But a few days ago, a historian defended her PhD project, which was to examine the book catalogues of several hundred auctions between 1750 and 1815, and see what kind of people bought books. What she found was that while the bourgeouis and the richer farmers did buy a lot of them, poor peasants, cotters, servants and others bought more books than previously thought.

According to the interview with her I read, she didn’t exclude the possibility of this being a thing which later went out of fashion, for example when the urbanization processes started in the 19th century, which it most likely did, and which most likely also gave past historians a basis for repundiating the “myth” of the Reading Peasant. However, neither did she exclude that this was one of the underlying causes for the election and efficiency of the “Peasant Parliament” in 1833, which famously, under the leadership of amongst others Søren “Neibæk” Jabæk, abolished income taxes in Norway.

(Also: A yay for getting home from the isolation of Røros, and a yay for getting my hands on Klassekampen again! :D )