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Loading... Een kleine geschiedenis van Amsterdamby Geert Mak
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. An enjoyable introduction to Dutch history, in particular of their largest city, Amsterdam. Covers from early Germanic history up through the modern day, and provides interesting insights into how Dutch culture influenced the development of the city. The history is interspersed with realia from the time being discussed (similar to Simon Schama, although not quite as scholarly). Overall, an enjoyable read. (  ) ivanrezansky | Jan 15, 2009 |   no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0674003314, Hardcover)Cosmopolitan, 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. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:01 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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