Amsterdam

Product DescriptionCosmopolitan, stylish, even a little decadent, Amsterdam--"the Venice of the North"--is a city of legendary beauty. From a twelfth-century settlement of wooden huts at the mouth of the River Amstel, it had become by the late sixteenth century one of the great cultural capitals of Europe and a major financial center.In this gracefully written examination of Amsterdam's soul--part history, part travel guide--the Dutch writer Geert Mak imaginatively depicts the lives of early Amsterdammers and traces the city's progress from a small town of merchants, sailors, farmers, and fishermen to a thriving metropolis. Mak's Amsterdam is a city of dreams and nightmares, of grand civic architecture and magnificent monuments, but also of civil wars, uprisings, and bloody religious purges. In his delightfully instructive journey through the city and through time, Mak displays an eye for the bizarre and the unexpected: a Rembrandt sketch of a young girl executed for manslaughter; the shoe of a medieval lady unearthed during a remodeling project; a graffito foretelling the city's doom on the wall of a mansion, daubed by a deranged burgomaster with his own blood.Amsterdam remains a magnet for travelers from around the world, and this charmingly detailed account of its origins and its history through the present day is designed to help the reader step into daily life in a truly modern city.Review[Mak] begins each chapter with an offbeat example of a different age's preoccupations...He interweaves these tales with cultural, economic, and social history to capture the distinct character of each age across nearly a millennium of history...This is a superior history of a fascinating subject, written with vigor and grace and infused with wisdom, wit, and scholarship. Enthusiastically recommended. (David Keymer Library Journal)In this delightful survey of Amsterdam's past and present, Mak...provides an enriched portrait of a city that he clearly loves. He incorporates elements of political, economic, and art history as well as utilizing his refined eye to offer the best elements of a travel guide. While he acknowledges that his city has been uniquely blessed, he doesn't ignore the seamier aspects of Amsterdam's saga...For those who have visited or hope to visit this metropolis, Mak's survey will provide both enjoyment and essential information. (Jay Freeman Booklist)Imaginative, engaging, and astute...As only an Amsterdammer can, Mak employs tongue-in-cheek jest to describe the 'proverbial soberness' of the people and their modest, 'proud...even un-proud' self-regard...Vivid stories, chosen with a good eye for the interesting and the representative, create a well-rounded sense of the religious, political, and cultural life in the city...Pithy and entertaining, Mak provides the reader with an altogether intriguing tour through the city he calls home. (Publishers Weekly)A most thoughtful and enjoyable narrative history of the city and the empire for which it once stood. (Douglas Fetherling New Brunswick Reader 2000-12-16)Mak's book is an ambitious account of the development of Amsterdam from its founding in the twelfth century to the present day. This is of some world-historical relevance, inasmuch as Amsterdam dominated world-trade and finance during the Dutch 'golden age' from about 1580 to 1675. Though Mak by no means dwells on this period, he appreciates the special significance of Amsterdam's glory days and the book is also an effort to account for Amsterdam's rise to prominence and its subsequent decline. Although this story has already been told, Mak's imaginative husbanding of resources and his unique quotidian perspective make this a different kind of effort to reframe the puzzle of Amsterdam's greatness and decline...Mak's book...[is] a praiseworthy endeavor in empirical scholarship. It is an inspiration to those of us looking for ways to revive the urban past as living history, rather than as a collection of d
Author: Mak, Geert

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Binding: Paperback

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0674009932

ISBN-13: 9780674009936