Was the Icelandic Public Indifferent Towards the Independence Struggle?

During the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, most of Iceland’s leading politicians fought hard for the revision of the constitution from 1874 and changes to Iceland’s position within the Danish kingdom. Discussion of those issues took up a large part of Alþingi’s time during this period. The debate within Alþingi echoed in the national newspapers and was characterized by what was then called “grand-politics“. This category was mainly covered by the issue of Iceland’s status within Denmark, but it also applied to other constitutional reforms and large economic issues. But did grand politics weigh heavily on the public’s mind? Did the nation rally behind its “heroes of independence”? Although this image has been conjured up many times, both by histori ans and in gen eral discourse, it is far from a realistic description. The nature of the views held by the Icelandic public on constitutional issues needs further research, although conclusions about public opinion have often been drawn. In this article, opinions on the independence struggle are highlighted and discussed. An attempt is made to use a wider range of con temporaneous sources than is normally considered: beyond the national newspapers, private correspondence is examined, along with local handwritten journals that served small areas. Although political leaders held constitutional issues aloft and sought to force others to participate in the debate, there were nevertheless doubts in Icelandic society about whether such priorities were reasonable. Judging by various national newspaper articles, testimonies in personal sources, and the focus of the local handwritten journals, it is untenable to affirm the familiar claim that the Icelandic public had a keen interest in the independence struggle during this period. Recent studies have tackled older historical views on the independence struggle, challenging the notion of “history from above” with its focus on the words and actions of “big men” that were assumed to have general public support. Contemporary research on the politics and democratisation of this era not only takes new approaches to the subjects at hand, but also seeks to deconstruct symbols erected in the past. Such symbols often arose more for political than academic purposes, with the goal of using history to strengthen national identity and national pride.