Boundaries and Their Meanings in the History of the Netherlands

Kaplan (Dutch history, U. Colege London, UK), Carson (history, U. of Dayton, US), and Cruz (history, Western Carolina U., US) present ten papers that explore the topic of boundaries, understood broadly to encompass physical boundaries as well as conceptual, cultural, and other kinds of boundaries, in the history of the Netherlands from the early Enlightenment to the modern era. Specific topics include geographic boundaries and the exotic world in the early Enlightenment, the transnational dispersal of the Walloon military aristocracy in the era of the Dutch Revolt, the geographic extent of the Dutch book trade in the 17th century, Dutch intercultural mediators among the Mohawks in 17th century New Netherland, the territorial neutrality of the Netherlands in World War I, and the dominance of organic thinking about the "national community" in the post-World War II Netherlands. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Benjamin J. Kaplan (B.A. Yale University 1981, Ph.D. Harvard University 1989) is Professor of Dutch History at University College London and has a joint appointment at the University of Amsterdam. His most recent book is Divided by Faith (Cambridge, Mass., 2007).Marybeth Carlson is Associate Professor of History at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio, where she specializes in European Social History. She is currently at work on a comparative study of eighteenth century revolutions.Laura Cruz is an Associate Professor of History at Western Carolina University. She is the author ofThe Paradox of Prosperity (Oak Knoll, 2008) and several articles about economic culture in the seventeenth century Netherlands.