It is sometimes said that if you want to discover how a country's establishment wishes its history portrayed, then the place to go is a college text-book. Just over twenty years after VE-Day, the author of ‘Swedish History’ (Svensk historia), a text book whose aim was to ‘ensure that events in our country are correctly understood’, entitled the chapter on 1939—45 ‘The Second World War threatens our freedom and supplies.’ The text continued:

This excerpt contains most of the elements of what came to be known as the ‘small-state realism’ interpretation. This rested on the following propositions: national independence, the welfare and survival of the Swedish people were at stake; German military hegemony over Sweden was unchallengeable; concessions were limited and only given where they were essential: neutrality was bent but not broken; national unity was paramount; and the neutral right to trade with Germany was legitimate.