Hey all, I've recently gotten very interested in Swedish history - specifically Sweden's time as a great power, the Northern Wars, Thirty Years War, etc.
I've trawled through several Wikipedia articles during quiet shifts at work (not many people come into the library at night...), but I like to have books. First cos I get eyestrain reading off a screen, and second cos it makes my bookshelves look more impressive.
So I was hoping I could get some suggestions for good books on that general period, but any books (from Vikings to modern day) are of interest too.
Cheers in advance!
For a good book on the battle that ended of the Swedish Empire, historian Peter Englunds book on the Battle of Poltava is a good read. A very popular historian among the Swedish public is Herman Lindqvist, though he has drawn some controversy during recent years in regards to factual errors and bias.
For a general overview of early Sweden, I recommend (with some hesitation), Anders Winroth, The Conversion of Scandinavia (2012). Although I disagree strongly with parts of this text (I think the narrative sometime gets whiggish and teleological), it's a quick and easy introduction to some of the problems of the transition from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages, so it could help set the scene for better understanding your later interests.
If you're looking for some more thorough up-to-date information on particulars from the Viking Age, there's no better place to start than Stefan Brink and Neil Price, eds., The Viking World (2008). This impressively large volume is actually a compendium of over fifty short articles by some of the top names in early Scandinavian history, great for picking a quick read between your library duties.