| Edition |
1st Vintage Books ed. |
| Description |
xiii, 698 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm |
|
text txt rdacontent |
|
unmediated n rdamedia |
|
volume nc rdacarrier |
| Note |
"Originally published ... by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, in 1987"--Title page verso. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 655-670) and index. |
| Contents |
The Batavian Temperament -- Part one: becoming. Moral geography. The mystery of the drowning cell. Trials by water -- Patriotic scripture. Uncertain boundaries -- Chronicle -- Scripture -- Part two: doing and not doing. Feasting, fasting and timely atonement. Whales on the beach; writing on the wall -- Gracing the meal -- Stygian fires and aqua fortis -- The impertinence of survival. Between Mars and Mercury -- "This indigested vomit of the sea" -- The embarrasment of rights. Cornucopia -- In the realm of Queen Money -- Money unconfined: "I invest, he speculates, they gamble." -- Part three: living and growing. Housewives and hussies: homeliness and worldlinees. Cleanliness and godliness -- The heroic housewife -- Temptations and terrors -- In the republic of children. Little perishes -- Between the windmill and the walker -- Ex nugis seria: child's play? -- Making babies safe(ly): the diary of a Dutch midwife -- The pretzel and the puppy dog -- Part four: watersheds. Inside, outside. Doors -- Worms -- Luctor et emergo. |
| Summary |
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. -- Publisher description. |
| Subject |
Netherlands -- Civilization -- 17th century.
|
|
Civilization. (OCoLC)fst00862898
|
|
Netherlands. (OCoLC)fst01204034
|
| Chronological Term |
1600-1699
|
| ISBN |
0679781242 |
|
9780679781240 |
|
0394510755 |
|
9780394510750 |
|
