SEA OF LAND introduces the polder as an important piece in the jigsaw puzzle of Dutch national identity. What is a polder, really, and how is it structured as an artificial landscape, what are its peculiar qualities, and how can it be developed further?SEA OF LAND describes the history, design and development of the most famous Dutch land reclamation projects in their relationships to one another. What is new here is that this is done from the perspective of landscape architectonics. For the ...

War, Trade, and Settlement in the Seventeenth-Century Atlantic World

"The Dutch Moment" demonstrates how the Dutch built and eventually lost an Atlantic empire, one stretching from their homeland in the United Provinces to the Hudson River, from Brazil and the Caribbean to Africa's Gold Coast. Whether as settlers or soldiers, many participants in Dutch colonisation came from other parts of Europe or the New World. Nor could the Dutch have achieved military supremacy without also carefully cul...

Wim Klooster and Gert Oostindie present a fresh look at the Dutch Atlantic in the period following the imperial moment of the seventeenth century. This epoch (1680–1815), the authors argue, marked a distinct and significant era in which Dutch military power declined and Dutch colonies began to chart a more autonomous path.

The loss of Brazil and New Netherland were twin blows to Dutch imperial pretensions. Yet the Dutch Atlantic hardly faded into insignificance. Instead, the influence of th...

From the 17th century onwards, Dutch merchants and traders have traveled the seven seas in search of new opportunities. In the Golden Age, Amsterdam became the warehouse of the world and the gateway to Europe. At the same time, Dutch scientists unravelled the mysteries of daily life, while painters presented a new vision of reality and changed the world of art. The inspiring stories of courageous pioneers, innovative entrepreneurs, talented artists and other notable characters have captured o...

The Canon of Flanders presents people, places, inventions, events and developments with special importance for today’s Flemish society. 60 richly illustrated windows illuminate decisive moments in history, from the earliest habitation up to the present. Besides well-known heroes and villains, the reader will also encounter ordinary men and women who, in good times and bad, built a life for themselves. This book was put together by a committee of experts after consultation with researchers, ...

The Jewish Orphanage in Leiden was the last one of eight such care homes to open its doors in the Netherlands before the Second World War. After spending almost 39 years in an old and utterly inadequate building in Leiden's city centre, the inauguration in 1929 of a brand-new building, shown on the front cover, was the start of a remarkably productive and prosperous period.

The building still stands there, proudly but sadly, to this day: the relatively happy period lasted less than fourteen y...