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The Embarrassment of Riches

An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age
Aug 06, 2014DorisWaggoner rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This splendid account of Dutch history and culture in its Golden age uses art and architecture to illustrate Schama's points. At the beginning of the 17th c., Holland was a conglomeration of feuding states, which came together only when at risk of being overrun by larger, richer military states. Pulling itself together, Holland became an enormously wealthy world empire, one could argue the first since the Romans. The subtitle sums it all up--their wealth, and their religious fervor, led to a constant fear of being corrupted by their wealth. Because the organization of the book is by topic, not chronology, and chapters are very long, things get repetitive in places. But it helped enormously in understanding why a small group of Dutch left for New Netherland, and why they prospered there, among other topics of interest to me.