One striking feature in Swedish accounts of the war years is the frequent use of the term, beredskap. There is no direct equivalent in English but it combines the characteristics of preparedness, readiness, stand-by and emergency. Its usage to describe the state of the country during 1939—45 is significant because it allowed the authorities to portray their military and civil measures in a passive, defensive manner. This suited a neutral that officially regarded the belligerents on an equal footing and studiously avoided any implications that war was likely with any one of them. Swedish beredskap was what Per Albin famously claimed was good in August 1939 but beredskapstiden — the stand-by period — was the defining term for the Home Front. As the Second World War raged outside its borders, Sweden experienced a calmer beredskapstid within. Yet while it is true that relatively few of its citizens died while on active military service or even as civilian casualties, it would be grossly misleading to characterise the everyday life of Sweden as unaffected by the Second World War. The population experienced significant social, political and economic disruption as a result of wartime conditions and emerged in 1945 as an altered society in attitude and aspiration. Furthermore, governmental institutions and the economic infrastructure had been strengthened through adaptation to wartime conditions. The political turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s had by late 1939 stabilised somewhat with the formation of the wartime Coalition Government.