Anders Björnsson was born in Stockholm in 1951. After academic studies in economic history in Stockholm and Gothenburg he worked first as a teacher, then as a producer at Sveriges Radio's science editorial office and then as a scientific employee at Svenska Dagbladet. He founded and was editor-in-chief of the fourteen-day magazine Dagens Forskning (2001–2003) and the international quarterly magazine Baltic Worlds (2008–2013).

Björnsson has published monographs in company, organisational and personal history. From 1997 to 2012, he was chairman of the Swedish Humanities Association. From time to time he has been a visiting professor at the School of Public Administration and in 2011 was appointed honorary doctor at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Gothenburg.

He has published several anthologies, collections of essays, thought books, translations (mainly from German) and has been active as a publishing editor. In 2013, he published a biography of ideas about Joseph Roth, Svindleriets ädla konst (The Noble Art of Fraud). In the spring of 2021, a collection of mini-essays on music will be published, När man inte hunsar (When you do not bully). He has initiated the Swedish History Days and the Contemporary History Institute (Södertörn University).