The Embarrassment of Riches - An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age

By Simon Schama

Schama explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up, attained an unprecedented level of affluence, and lived in constant dread of being corrupted by happiness. Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, Schama re-creates in precise detail a nation's mental state. He tells of bloody uprisings and beached whales, of the cult of hygiene and the plague of tobacco, of thrifty housewives and profligate tulip-speculators. He tells us how the Dutch celebrated themselves and how they were slandered by their enemies.

"History on the grand scale...An ambitious portrait of one of the most remarkable episodes in modern history."--New York Times

"Wonderfully inclusive; with wit and intense curiosity he teases out meaning from every aspect of Dutch seventeenth-century life."--Robert Hughes

Daily Life in Rembrandt's Holland

By Paul Zumthor

First published in 1959 (in French), this richly detailed portrait of Dutch society during the golden age looks at material life of the average citizen including food, housing, holidays, industry, relations between the sexes -- and even toilet habits. It evokes the sights, sounds and texture of life, an excellent reference.

The Island at the Center of the World : The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, ..

The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America

By Russell Shorto

search inside the book"The Island at the Center of the World ranks among the best books ever written about New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement on Manhattan that would become New York City. Shorto's prose is deliciously rich and witty, and the story he tells -drawing heavily on sources that have only recently come to light- brings one surprise after another. His rediscovery of Adriaen van der Donck, Peter Stuyvesant's nemesis, is fascinating." --Edwin G. Burrows, coauthor of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History.

The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall 1477-1806

By Jonathan Israel

"Jonathan Israel's 1,231-page blockbuster... offers a comprehensive, integrated account of the northern part of the Netherlands over almost 350 years...[it] represents the fruit of 12 years of research, contemplation and writing, and brims over with interesting detail."--The New York Times Book Review

"Israel performs the great service of charting a path through this literature and presents a coherent and comprehensive picture of the Dutch Republic.... Comprehensive in scope and yet so clearly and carefully written that it could serve as a textbook for graduate history courses. Because it is so thoroughly researched and up-to-date, it is also the kind of indispensable handbook that deserves a place on every early modernist's bookshelf."--American Historical Review

Conversation with Spinoza - Writings from an Unbound Europe

By Goce Smilevski

Smilevski's novel brings the thinker Spinoza, all inner life, into conversation with the outer, all-too-real facts of his life and his day--from his connection to the Jewish community of Amsterdam, his excommunication in 1656, and the emergence of his philosophical system to his troubling feelings for his fourteen-year-old Latin teacher Clara Maria van den Enden and later his homosexual disciple Johannes Casearius. From this conversation there emerges a compelling and complex portrait of the life of an idea--and of a man who tries to live that idea.

The novel has been published before in Macedonia, Poland, Slovenia, Serbia and Monte Negro, and has won several literary awards.

The Undutchables

By White & Boucke

Nothing is more interesting than to see yourself through the eyes of an outsider. The UnDutchables is a very revealing treatise about us... This book in a very exact yet funny way discloses all the secrets about us that we really would have preferred to keep to ourselves. In other words, they hang out the dirty linen... (...) Everything in it is true, and only the humor with which it is written makes it at all palatable for us. A fine little work, then, that will be around for years.-- Johannes van Dam, Het Parool, May 26, 1990

The Xenophobe's Guide to the Dutch

By Rodney Bolt

Highlights the unique character and behavior of the nation. Frank, irreverent, funny--almost guaranteed to cure Xenophobia.

"If I were a cabaret artist or stand up comedian, I'd just get up and read these books to the audience as they would bring the house down." --Het Parool (Holland)

"An enlightened new series, good natured, witty and useful. The Xenophobe's Guides to different nations deserves a real cheer." --The European

Culture Shock! Netherlands

By Hunt Janin & Van Eil

something for everyone. Culture Shock Netherlands enables you to chart a course through Dutch society and points out the practical considerations of settling in a new country. From doing business to finding a home this book gives you the headstart you need. --Culture Shock! Guides