Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland's Glory PDF
Preview Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland's Glory
tJBRARY "484 265 USA $35.0111 Canada $38.0 ! O n November 5, 1688, William of Orange, Protestant ruler of the Dutch Republic, landed at Torbay in Devon with a force of twenty thousand men. The Glorious Revolution that followed forced James II to abdicate, and William and his wife, Mary, were jointly crowned king and queen on April 11,1689. How was it that this almost bloodless coup took place with such apparent ease yet was not recognized as the full- blooded invasion and conquest it undoubtedly was? In this wide-ranging book, Lisa Jardine assembles new research in political and social history, together with the histories of art, music, gardening, and science, to show how Dutch tolerance, resourcefulness, and com¬ mercial acumen had effectively conquered Britain long before William and his English wife arrived in London. Going Dutch is the remarkable story of the relationship between two of Europe’s most important colonial powers at the dawn of the modern age. Throughout the seventeenth century, Holland and England were engaged in an energetic commercial and cultural exchange that survived three Anglo-Dutch wars. Dutch influence also permanently reshaped England’s cultural landscape. Whether through scientific discoveries, the design of royal palaces and gardens, or the introduc¬ tion of works by the greatest painters of the age—Rubens, Rembrandt, and Van Dyck among them—the England we know today owes an extraordinary amount to its fierce competitor across the “narrow sea.” Going Dutch demonstrates how individuals, such as Christopher Wren, Isaac Newton, and successive genera¬ tions of the remarkable Huygens family, who were usually represented as isolated geniuses working in the enclosed environment of their native country in fact developed their ideas within a context of the easy Anglo-Dutch relations that laid the vital groundwork for the European Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution. Above all, Lisa Jardine tests the traditional view that the rise of England as a world power took place at the expense of the Dutch. She finds that it was a “handing (continued on back flap ) 091 II i M* •*! - WfeiSSI; mme** mt mmam \&M If wwm m mmm MaM'B ti'&f &n- ' .v ■ ^ ,-i. GOING DUTCH By the same author Francis Bacon and the Art of Discourse From Humanism to the Humanities (with Anthony Grafton) Still Harping on Daughters Erasmus, Man of Letters Erasmus: The Education of a Christian Prince Reading Shakespeare Historically Worldly Goods Hostage to Fortune (with Alan Stewart) Ingenious Pursuits Global Interests (with Jerry Brotton) On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Career of Sir Christopher Wren The Curious Life of Robert Hooke: The Man who Measured London The Awful End of Prince William the Silent: The First Assassination of a Head of State with a Handgun GOING DUTCH How England Plundered Holland’s Glory LISA JARDINE Q w HARPER An Imprint ofYiarperColYmsPublishers www.harpercollins.com going dutch. Copyright © 2008 by Lisa Jardine. All rights reserved. Printed in China. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022. HarperCollins books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information please write: Special Markets Department, HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022. Published in Great Britain in 2008 by HarperCollinsPublishers. Printed in China. FIRST U.S. EDITION Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request. ISBN 978-0-06-077408-0 08 09 10 11 12 OFF/S.C. 10 987654321 3 1223 08484 2658 For Moti
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