Peter Englund

:"Note: This is not the same Peter Englund who is a professor of finance at the Stockholm School of Economics."Peter Englund (born April 4, 1957 in Boden) is a Swedish author and historian, and a member of the Swedish Academy since 2002.

Biography

Englund was born into a military family in Boden and studied caretaking for two years and then humanistic subjects for another two years in secondary school. He was then conscripted and served 15 months in the Swedish Army at the Norrbotten Regiment located in Boden. He was politically active in his youth and supported the FNL.

Englund studied archaeology, history, and theoretical philosophy at Uppsala University, completing a bachelor's degree in 1983, after which he began doctoral studies in History. He was awarded his Ph.D. in 1989 for his dissertation "Det hotade huset" (English title in the dissertation abstract: "A House in Peril") (1989), an investigation of the worldview of the 17th century Swedish nobility. During his period as a doctoral student, he had also worked for some time for the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Service ("MUST"), and the year before receiving his doctorate he had published the bestselling "Poltava", a detailed description of the Battle of Poltava, where the troops of Swedish king Charles XII were defeated by the Russian army of Tsar Peter I in 1709.

Englund has received the August Prize (1993) and the Selma Lagerlöf Prize for Literature (2002). He was elected a member of the Swedish Academy in 2002.

Englund writes non-fiction books and essays, mainly about history, and especially about the Rise of Sweden as a Great Power, but also about other historical events. He writes in a very accessible style, providing narrative details usually omitted in typical books about history. His books have gained popularity and are translated into several languages, such as German and Czech.

Bibliography

*"Poltava" ("Poltava") (1988)
*"Det hotade huset" ("A House in Peril") (1989)
*"Förflutenhetens landskap" ("The Landscape of the Past") (1991), collection of essays
*"Ofredsår" ("Years of Warfare") (1993), Sweden during Thirty Years' War with Erik Dahlberg at the centre of the book
*"Brev från nollpunkten" ("Letters from Ground Zero") (1996), collection of essays about modern history
*"Den oövervinnerlige" ("The Invincible") (2000), on Sweden’s period as a Great Power. Sequel to "Ofredsår"
*"Tystnadens historia" ("History of Silence") (2004), collection of essays
*"Silvermasken" ("The Silver Mask") (2006), a short biography of Queen Kristina of Sweden

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050307035254/http://www.svenskaakademien.se/ENG/members/lmp/chair10.html Biography]
* [http://www.peterenglund.com/ Englund's website (in Swedish)]

Persondata
NAME = Englund, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Swedish historian, member of the Swedish Academy
DATE OF BIRTH = April 4, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH = Boden, Sweden
DATE OF DEATH = living
PLACE OF DEATH =