Berkel, Klaas van and Leonie de Goei, eds., The International Relevance of Dutch
History in The Low Countries Historical Review, Vol. 125, Nos. 2 & 3, 2010.
This special issue of the main journal of Dutch History, BMNG The Low Countries
Historical Review, examines the relevance of Dutch historical debates within an
international context. The aim is not to show whether Dutch history is unique but how
Dutch historical work is relevant to the historical process in general, to highlight areas in
which Dutch history illustrates larger historical themes, or offers a caution about an
interpretation based on the study of other societies that has been generalized. The volume
consists of twelve essays by important historians now working on Dutch history in the
Netherlands. The essays provide an introduction to contemporary scholarship on Dutch
history and its most prominent themes. Willem Frijhoff’s opening essay, “The Relevance
of Dutch History, or: Much in Little,” suggests that there are few good histories of the
Dutch nation in other languages and thus its national history is not well known outside
the country. Even in Dutch, he argues, there are very few good surveys of the nation’s
history, Instead, Dutch historians prefer to write thematic works and some of these are
better known outside the country. He identifies these major themes for which the Dutch
are well known and have made major contributions: water management; the development
of a capitalist economy and bourgeois society in the early modern period; colonialism
and international trade; culture and intellectual life, especially the development of
tolerance and secularism, particularly in the early modern era but also in recent decades;
and the apparent Dutch national ambition “to show the world an exemplary route to
modernity.” The latter may help explain why Dutch historians are better known for
writing transnational rather than national histories. The following essays offer a good
introduction to important themes in Dutch early modern history: Bas van Bavel, “The
Medieval Origin of Capitalism in the Netherlands;” Klaas van Berkel, “The Dutch
Republic, Laboratory of the Scientific Revolution;” Maarten Prak, “The Dutch Republic
as a Bourgeois Society;” Wijnhand W. Mijnhardt, “Urbanization, Culture and the Origins
of the European Enlightenment;” Wim van den Doel, “The Dutch Empire: An Essential
Part of World History,“ “Civil Society or Democracy? A Dutch Paradox;”
The journal is available on line at: Available on line at:
http://www.bmgn-lchr.nl/index.php/bmgn/issue/view/422.