A History of the Netherlands: From the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day

by Friso Wielenga

Overview

Friso Wielenga's detailed history of the Netherlands traces its political development from independence to today, incorporating significant explorations of culture, economics, international relations, colonisation and decolonisation in the process. It provides a thorough and well-balanced overview of the key moments in and vital aspects of Dutch history since 1500. Challenging incorrect assumptions concerning political consensus and religious toleration in the country, A History of the Netherlands offers a masterful analysis of domestic politics and the nation's international involvements.

This new edition includes:

* Enhanced and expanded examinations of 21st century developments to the present
* Greater coverage of the Dutch role in the slave trade, the Atlantic trade and the Glorious Revolution
* More material on multiculturalism and integration politics and the World War Two deportation and extermination of the Dutch Jewry
* Historiographical updates throughout

The book is vital reading for anyone looking for a rich understanding of the Netherlands and its past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350379596
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/08/2024
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	939,493
Product dimensions:	6.15(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Friso Wielenga is Director of the Centre for Dutch Studies at the Westphalian Wilhelms-University in Münster, Germany. His books on Dutch and German history as well as German-Dutch relations have been published both in Dutch and German.

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Illustrations
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Opposition and Revolt: The Creation and Consolidation of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, or the Dutch Republic (1555–1609)
3. The Republic in the Golden Age
4. A Second-Rate Power: The Decline of the Republic
5. From Restoration to the Liberal Era (1813–1917)
6. Pillarization, Stability, Crisis and War (1918-1945)
7. Political and Economic Reconstruction, New Social Movements, Polarization and the Way to the 'Polder Model' (1945-2002)
8. Epilogue
9. Afterword
Notes
Timeline
Bibliography
Index of Names
General Index

Editorial Reviews

Friso Wielenga is a born bridge builder between the Netherlands and the rest of the world. If you want to get to know us and our history quickly and thoroughly: read this book. Clear, clever, concise and thorough, a must for everyone who has to deal with my small, strange, eternally searching country” —Geert Mak, jourbanalist and award-winning author of many books including In Europe: Travels through the Twentieth Century (2004)

From the Publisher

Wielenga's History of the Netherlands is a marvelously concise and penetrating overview of the whole of Dutch history from the Revolt against Spain down to today. It will prove a real asset to readers as there is nothing remotely of the sort available in English and it never relies on older views and literature but systematically selects what is most pertinent from the most up-to-date research and authoritative recent works.

Jonathan Israel

In this fascinating account of five centuries of Dutch history, Friso Wielenga questions the alleged peacefulness of the Netherlands' historical development since the days of the Revolt, counter-balancing the early-modern bias often found in other Anglophone publications on the subject. Comprehensive, academically rigorous but also entertaining and eminently readable, I expect it to appeal to both academic audiences and a wider historically interested public alike.

Ulrich Tiedau

Not since the publication of Kossmann's History of the Low Countries in the 1970s has there been such an in-depth treatment of the political and socio-economic history of the Netherlands in English. This new book, written in Wielenga's own inimitable style, makes explicit reference to modern Dutch scholarship and challenges the traditional and now discredited stereotype of a country born out of a unified revolt against Spanish tyranny and epitomised by a continuous, gradual and largely peaceful progress towards an apparently stable and consensual polity in the twentieth century. In six carefully structured chapters the author provides us with an innovative and more carefully informed version of how the Netherlands came to be the country that it now is, synthesising the myriad of domestic and international forces that framed the country's history from the sixteenth century to the present day.

Bob Moore