The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (Paperback)

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Review
'The Embarrassment of Riches is well-named. Schama's method is wonderfully inclusive; with wit and intense curiosity he teases out meaning form every aspect of Dutch seventeenth-century life, from ideas about sea monsters to obsessions about hygiene. One reads it all with mounting enjoyment and at the end one's sense of Dutch civilisation in the Golden Age of Rembrandt and van Diemen is not just salted and enriched -- but remade.' Robert Hughes'Simon Schama writes with grace and wit, and his enthusiasms are contagious. Above all, this is a labour of love -- love of an ethical system, of a physical landscape, and of an emotional husbandry that perfectly balanced the material with the moral. The lightheartedness and energy that charactize the author and his marvellous book are the finest tribute he could have paid to the subject of his choice.' Anita Brookner, Observer'This is history on the grand scale, and like all generously conceived historical works leaves us reflecting about the present as well as the past.' John Gross, New York Times'Schama is a scholar with the rare gift of talking to non-scholars without talking down... What is really breathtaking about the book is his command of overall structure, that enables him to construct such a complex and sophisticated argument without ever losing narrative drive, to generalize only from innumberable particularities, which somehow always remain in proportion, and are never allowed to clog the massive flow.' John Russell Taylor, The Times'Seldom has a people opened its doors so wide. A performance on the epic scale.' Independent

This extraordinary book, first published in 1987, has already become accepted as a classic of historical writing. It examines the progress of a loosely connected group of farming, fishing and shipping communities, living in a flat and watery landscape, without a common language or religion or even a shared government, into that dynamic power, the Dutch Republic. By the examination of all manner of materials from cookery books and scrubbing brushes to Jan Steen's Tavern Scene and Nicholas Maes's Maid Peeling Parsnips, Schama succeeds in reconstructing the collective personality of the Dutch in the 17th century. (Kirkus UK)

Scholarly, exhaustively researched, packed with highly esoteric information, this massive study is less daunting than it might seem at first glance, thanks to Schama's lively writing style and his eye for the colorful and thought-provoking detail. Specialized, but likely to instruct and, more importantly, entertain the general reader. Focusing his attention on the Netherlands during the 17th century, Schama investigates the linkage that the citizens who wrested their lands from the sea felt with the waters lapping their shores. The sea, quite understandably, was viewed as an enemy and, in a particularly evocative section, the author discourses at length on the identification the Dutch felt with the Children of Israel, especially the Jews of Exodus and their flight through the Red Sea. It is intriguing to speculate on how Netherlander attitudes influenced our Puritan forebears during their stay in the Low Countries. Puritan talk of founding the "New Jerusalem" and the Calvinist emphasis on Old Testament teachings owe much lo the Pilgrims' sojourn in the Netherlands. Equally provocative are the insights given into Golden Age attitudes toward sexuality - chastity was demanded and. again, had something to do with Old Testament attitudes, this time toward "cleanliness." Not that women were secluded, as they were in Latin countries; they were, in fact, quite liberated in their social intercourse, but a Dutch woman's reputation had to be as spotless as her doorstep. The dichotomy between apparently uninhibited public behavior and the strictest private morality confused and shocked both Catholic visitors and Puritan moralists. Among other topics that come under Schama's scrutiny are art, superstition. finance and child-rearing during the period when the Dutch Republic was one of Europe's superpowers. In each area he explores, Schama discovers details that prompt far-ranging speculations about religion, philosophy and the human condition. A stimulating and important dissection of a little-known but constantly fascinating era. A lavish compilation of 325 photographs (not seen) illustrates the text. (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Description
The book that first made Simon Schama's reputation when first published in 1987. This historical masterpiece is an epic account of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age of Rembrandt and van Diemen. 'This is history in the same spirit as Braudel, Ginzburg, Ladurie and Le Goff. It seems to me that Schama is one of the few historians writing in English today who can recreate the distinctive mentalite of another culture. ' Jonathan MillerIn this BRILLIANT work that moves far beyond the conventions of social or cultural history, Simon Schama investigates the astonishing case of a people's self-invention. He shows how, in the seventeenth century, a modest assortment of farming, fishing and shipping communities, without a shared language, religion or government, transformed themselves into a formidable world empire -- the Dutch republic.

5 Reviews 5 star:    (0) 4 star:  (3) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 3.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   20 of 21 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars A great book: erudite yet very readable, 8 Nov 2000 By  giffin.lorimer@cwcom.net (Hampshire, UK) - See all my reviews A fascinating insight into the origins of one of our closest neighbouring states. Wonderfully readable, superior in this respect to many other bestselling history books. The themes are often surprising (the popularity of breakfast paintings, for example) but help to demonstrate how widely distributed was the wealth of the nation in that era. It's interesting to consider the confluence of trade and democracy in such a centrally-located country, when all around was despotism, and to reflect on its importance in sowing the seeds of liberal democracy to its neighbours in succeeding centuries. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   19 of 20 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding cultural interpretation of the Dutch Republic, 30 Mar 1999 By A Customer This is narrative, factually dense history at its best. Schama demonstrates an immense range of knowledge and insight in this analysis of the rise and fall the 17th century Dutch Republic. Using art particularly, but Dutch culture of the Golden Age as a whole, he shows the heart of the nation with all its neuroses and religious idiosyncracies. A fantastic tour de force. One of the best history books I've read. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   18 of 19 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Nurturing a new republic, 29 Aug 2005 By  Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    From a rich foundation of material and an exquisite writing style, Schama guides us through the formative years of the Dutch Republic. The politics of that creation, however, he leaves to others. Instead, he addresses the underlying conditions of Dutch society of the period. At the outset, he decrees he will avoid Culture in favour of culture. This welcome departure makes this book a treasure of information. However, it isn't a volume for the novice. Much background history in Enlightenment Europe in general and the Dutch role in particular, is required before tackling this book. That a beached whale can become a cultural artefact seems aberrant at first glance. The Dutch, as Calvinists, could find a moral message in a wide disparity of events. Whale beachings proved no exception. Pamphlets, articles, even books could make use of cetacean corpses to invoke metaphors of nationalism, extravagance, profit, indulgence and divine messages. Schama shows how easily the besieged Protestant nation at the edge of Catholic Europe found means to justify and define their existence. This form of thinking and expression gave the Dutch strength to sustain a novel experiment in society and nationhood. It also refutes the suggestion that the Dutch were governed by a dogmatist Calvinism. Flexibility and tolerance, no matter how often challenged, remained the foundation of Dutch culture. Against all odds, the Republic survived and flourished. The flourishing becomes the pivotal point in Schama's account. The influx of riches from global trade challenged aspects of Calvinist values. Extravagance was condemned, but not impaired. The lure of commerce was strong and the accumulation of wealth too rapid to be hampered. Calvinist ministers might rail at the influx of gold, but their wrath was constrained by a society manifestly stable. Excesses remained rare as the burghers pursued their wealth soberly. Ostentation, Schama notes, didn't mean extravagance. As Schama clearly describes, flourishing trade opened minds as well as purses. Opinions flourished with bank accounts and the Dutch Enlightenment attracted exiles from more dogmatic societies. He pulls together many threads in weaving his tapestry of Dutch culture, enhanced by numerous illustrations conveying the wealth of allegorical images used to influence social and national mores. The varieties of thinking meant that the Dutch Republic came into existence without an underlying ideology or dogma. Even the Republic's borders remained too fluid to establish a certain national identity from them. If there are faults in Schama's sweeping account, they are few, but significant. An introductory chapter on the chronology of events would ease the novice's entry to this weighty narrative. His focus, while a needed supplement to general histories, is a bit tight. He spends many pages recounting the history of a single midwife as exemplary. On the other hand, the role of immigrants is given short shrift. Jewish contacts in Iberia and the New World were an important facet of economic growth. Trade with the Far East is granted only marginally more attention. As the roots of "the embarrassment of riches" one would expect more attention be given them. He ignores many major thinkers, perhaps slotting them into his disdained Culture. Yet many major figures of the era go begging for ink space in his book - Spinoza, Descartes and others were not writing for themselves. Even posthumously, their opinions affected the thinking of literate Dutch - and in a burgher society, there were many of those. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada] Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 5 customer reviews...		Most Recent Customer Reviews 2.0 out of 5 stars More of a novel than a study in social sciences Too bad Simon Schama (has his surname Frisian origins?) has not been able to stir more profound waters. Read more Published on 3 Jun 2002 3.0 out of 5 stars History for professional historians. An endurance test. This is a work of erudition and painstaking research. So much so that I suspect it presents a dense thicket of quirky historicism to the average reader. Read more Published on 6 Jan 2000 Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 5 customer reviews...

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