The three books reviewed in this essay all cross disciplinary boundaries. The first book illustrates, and argues for, the importance of history of technology and science for general history, for instance by looking at the linkages between technology transfer and agricultural reform in the late eighteenth century. The second book combines art history with history of technology: a painting is examined with a view to learning about networks among men of industry. The third book could be said to argue for the relevance of the private in the history of science by rendering theoretical innovation dependent upon resources gained outside public scientific life.

I have been careful not to mention the most important commonality of these books first, because I am aware of the general disinterest which reigns about most peripheral places. The three books are all about Denmark and written in Danish. But they should not be placed in the drawer labelled ‘ethnographic oddity’. Quite apart from their relevance under the rubric of centre and periphery, each one has a historiographical point rendering them more generally relevant. They probe historiographical boundaries and provide incentives for thinking about historical resources that have not been tapped. It should also be mentioned that all three books are beautifully illustrated. Danish academic books are cushioned from the stringencies of the market through the existence of a variety of funds. The market of Danish readers is too small to sustain a market of its own and so the infrastructure for the support of books which will inevitably make a loss is substantial. By tapping into these resources, the authors have managed to make all three books more appealing than an anglophone reader has come to expect.