Finland, Daughter of the Sea

Abstract

When a scholar from a large country sets out to study the problems of a small one there is often some kind of emotional attachment to explain the interest, whether it be ties of family or friendship or something more obscure. But commonly too there are quite reasonable grounds for undertaking the study, albeit less flattering to the small country: the country might provide a convenient case study for an enquiry into some more general phenomenon, or a subject for research may present itself there which is unknown in the scholar's own country. Jones's work is of the latter kind. Elevation of the land, the subject of his research, is certainly known around the shores of other countries, but it has no remarkable social consequences where there are, for example, steep shores, strong tides, or virtually uninhabited countryside.