The interwar years were a period when people were searching for new alternatives for the future. There had been a revolution in Russia and a new society was born. In 1929 the American economy crashed, which affected the whole Western world. During the 30ies the President Franklin D Roosevelt succeeded in overcoming the depression through the The New Deal, a program containing among other things state interventions. In 1933 Adolf Hitler seized the power in Germany and a National Socialistic reorganisation of the society began. These three countries represented different paths into the future. USA had been the symbol of the future for a long time, but during the interwar period Germany and the Soviet Union became new alternatives. At the same time the welfare state was in its cradle in Sweden and the debate about which way Sweden should go into the future was lively. In what ways peoples' lives be adapted to the modern society and how could the modern society adapt to the people?
The purpose of this project is to investigate how Swedish travellers apprehended different attempts to create new alternatives for the future in different countries. The study will emphasize how these Swedish travellers apprehended how the problems of the everyday life were solved in these countries and how these solutions pointed out new alternatives for the future.