Going Dutch

Product Description

A fascinating exploration of the relationship of competition & assimilation between the Netherlands & England during the 17th century revealing the ways in which Dutch tolerance resilience & commercial acumen effectively conquered Britain by reshaping its intellectual landscape long before Dutch monarchs sat on the English throne. Working backwards from the bloodless revolution that set William & Mary of Orange on the English throne in 1688 this bold & ambitious work redefines the history of cultural & commercial interconnection between two of the world's most powerful trading empires at a time of great intellectual & geographical discovery. Weaving together the lives of the great thinkers of the time Lisa Jardine demonstrates how individuals such as Anton van Leeuwenhoek Christiaan Huygens & Margaret Cavendish usually depicted as instances of isolated genius in fact evolved within a context of easy Anglo-Dutch exchange that laid the groundwork for the European Enlightenment & the Scientific Revolution. Beautifully illustrated throughout this is a fascinating history of big ideas & remarkable individuals. It denounces the traditional view that the rise of England as a world power took place at the expense of the Dutch asserting instead that what is usually interpreted as the decline of the Dutch trading empire was in fact a 'passing on' of the baton to a Britain expanding in power & influence.