The article initially points to some stereotypical narratives about 19th culture used during the 20th century that tend to obscure the understanding of critique of modernity and the diversity of directions of progress in the 19th century. Critique of modernity has to be analyzed in relation to some notion or narrative of modernity. Examples are given of different forms of critique of modernity and narratives of alternative directions of progress in 19th century Sweden. In order to bring some order to the diversity and to further reflection and discussion across different narratives of modernity, a meta-perspective is outlined in the form of a landscape of modernities with its different roads, directions and turning-points.