Product Description

The Dutch Golden Age, the age of Grotius, Spinoza, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and a host of other renowned artists and writers was also remarkable for its immense impact in the spheres of commerce, finance, shipping, and technology. It was in fact one of the most spectacularly creative episodes in the history of the world. Jonathan Israel gives the definitive account of the emergence of the United Provinces as a great power, and explains the subsequent decline in the eighteenth century. He places the thought, politics, religion, and social developments of the Golden Age in their broad context, and examines the changing relationship between the northern Netherlands and the south, which was to develop into modern Belgium.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83134 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Paperback
• 1280 pages

THES
"Israel has produced a classic ... Any scholar would be delighted to write a book of such learning, vigour and confidence. Very few indeed have done so, and no other has matched Israel on his topic."

Review
This is a magnificent doorstop of a book ... As an account of what made possible one of the most dazzling "Golden Ages" in European history it is unlikely to be bettered. (Sunday Telegraph )

Israel has produced a classic ... Any scholar would be delighted to write a book of such learning, vigour and confidence. Very few indeed have done so, and no other has matched Israel on his topic. (THES )

Sunday Telegraph
"This is a magnificent doorstop of a book ... As an account of what made possible one of the most dazzling "Golden Ages" in European history it is unlikely to be bettered."

Customer Reviews

The Dutch Republic: the greatness of a small nation
Whatever the Dutch are, they're not nationalists. At Dutch schools there is relatively little attention paid to Dutch history in the 16th to 17th century. The result is that few Dutchmen knows much about this period in which the Dutch won their indepence, and went on become, small as their new nation was, a major European power. It had the largest standing army after Spain, it several times beat the mighty British navy at sea, its commercial fleet was larger than all other European merchant fleets put together. Its culture flowered and -so says the author of this book- can only be compared with the bloom of classic Athens around 500 BC. You don't have to believe me. Just read this book. It is easily the best history of this period, including local Dutch efforts. It might help British readers to have another look at one of their closest neighbours. And it might learn Dutchman something about their roots.