New book by journalist and teacher Egill Bjarnason, entitled How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small Island has just been published by Penguin Books.
It is an unknown story about how one tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean shaped the world. In a book review in the New York Times, we can read: Egill Bjarnason tries to explain in his joyfully peculiar book, [โฆ] why Iceland, being a country with the soul of a very small town, can sometimes conquer the world โ. You can read the entire review HERE.
Iceland’s history began 1,200 years ago when a frustrated Viking captain and his useless navigator stranded in the middle of the North Atlantic. Suddenly, the island wasn’t just a stop for the terns. Instead, it has become a country where diplomats and musicians, sailors and soldiers, volcanoes and flowers have quietly changed the world forever.
The book takes readers on a journey through time, showing Iceland that played a pivotal role in events as varied as the French Revolution, the moon landing and the rise of Israel. Time and time again a humble nation has stood at the front of historical events shaping the world as we know it, and this book paints a vivid picture of how it all happened.
Egill Bjarnason is an Icelandic journalist based in Reykjavik. His work has appeared in the New York Times, National Geographic, Associated Press, Al Jazeera Online, AJ +, Lonely Planet and Hakai Magazine. As a Fulbright Scholar, he obtained a Master’s Degree in Social Documentation from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he also worked for two years as an assistant lecturer in photography and statistics.