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Een kleine geschiedenis van Amsterdam
In de klassieker Een kleine geschiedenis van Amsterdam beschrijft Geert Mak op uiterst toegankelijke wijze de historie van Amsterdam. Aan de hand van personen, gebouwen, dagboeken, schilderijen en foto's biedt hij een caleidoscoop van mini-geschiedenissen, die telkens in een breder perspectief worden geplaatst. Zo ontstaat een beknopt maar compleet beeld van het verleden van deze merkwaardige stad.
547 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1994
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About the author
Geert Mak
63 books383 followersDutch historian mostly known for his documentary series 'In Europa' (In Europe) and book of the same name. Nowadays he gives lectures about the Netherlands in the USA.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews
August 10, 2014
A DUTCH DOZEN
1. Amsterdam has a long history of thriftiness, of modesty. In the eighteenth century, Widow Pels, the city's richest inhabitant, had no more than five servants. In the 1990s, a local executive wrote to airline KLM to ask them to tone down their business-class service: ‘A cheese sandwich and a glass of milk are more than enough as far as I am concerned.’
2. If you want to ward off witchcraft, you can follow the example of one medieval Amsterdammer, who hung ‘a pot full of new needles into which she had pissed’ over the fire. (It may not have worked – she ended up confessing to having bewitched cattle, and was burned at the stake on the Dam.)
3. At the height of the tulip mania of the seventeenth century, the most prized variety was called Semper Augustus. It had ‘impeccably white petals with small veins of a fiery red running though them, the base of the bloom as blue as the skies’. A single bulb cost 5,000 guilders, which was about the same price as a house with large garden. (Presumably a garden with no Semper Augustuses in it.)
4. The poor in early modern Amsterdam had two ways out. For women, prostitution (natch); for men, the near-suicidal VOC ships to the East Indies. These were supplied with crews in large part through groups of pressgangers known as zielverkopers (soul merchants), and between shipwrecks and disease little more than a third of sailors would make it back alive. The prostitution, meanwhile, was even then something of a draw for the city, with the best girls having their own well-known nicknames: ‘The Northern Cat’, for instance, or ‘Sweetie Cunt’.
5. Actually, all women in Amsterdam society were known for their forwardness. When Casanova visited in 1759, he was amazed to be placed in a closed carriage alone with a beautiful 14 year old; ‘Here we learn to be independent,’ she said, seeing his surprise. When he tried to kiss her hand, she merely said, ‘Why my hand?’ Instead, according to his memoirs,
6. The nineteenth century was surprisingly quiet given the artistic and social upheavals taking place in other parts of Europe. While various modernisms were being explored in Paris, Willem Bilderdijk and Da Costa founded a society in Amsterdam called ‘Misgivings About the Spirit of the Age’ (!). In 1848 some Communists organised a jobless rally; but when hundreds of people actually showed up, they were so surprised that no one dared to address the crowd, and eventually everyone wandered off home again.
7. Amsterdam has a marked absence of monuments or state buildings; Mak refers to this as its anti-monumentalism, and he considers it characteristic of the city's undemonstrative psyche, not just a function of confused civic planning processes. ‘The number of monumental buildings in Amsterdam dating from the nineteenth century can be counted on the fingers of one hand.’ The main surviving example now is Central Station, which was pushed through from The Hague and widely regarded by authorities in Amsterdam itself as a disaster, ‘an eternal and irreversible mistake’. It finally cut the old town off from the IJ, destroying its character as a true port city and ending the vistas of ship's masts and rigging that had previously dominated locals' and visitors' impressions of the place. This was followed by the filling in of nearly twenty canals, generally to become new streets.
8. Sex work attempted to become slightly more discreet in the twentieth century. Two personal ads from the 1910s weekly Pst-Pst:
9. Mak is scathing on Amsterdam's self-image as a city that was full of resistors during the German occupation, noting that most authorities complied with the Nazi regime unquestioningly. Many saw themselves as minor bureaucrats, arranging for a certain train to run from A to B; the fact that the cargo was Jews did not concern them. In fact the train used to transport Jewish Amsterdammers to the camps in Germany and Poland was the same one every time, and some passengers realised this and hid letters on board for others to read. They tell of the arduous journey, how one girl sang songs, how a man told jokes to keep people's spirits up.
Of the 80,000 Jews in Amsterdam before the war, 5,000 were left alive when the city was liberated in 1945. Mak notes that ‘proportionally more Jews were deported from the Netherlands than from any other Western European country’.
10. In the 60s the city had its own crazy countercultural group known as the Provos (not to be confused with the Provisional IRA; in this case the word came from ‘provoke’). They liked to shout incomprehensible slogans at the police, like ‘Gnot!’ or ‘Smurf the ones who smurf the smurfs!’ Indeed, they had a plan to turn the local policeman into a sort of social worker who would carry ‘matches and contraceptives and also oranges and chicken drumsticks for the hungry proletariat’. When they protested at Princess Beatrix's wedding, a marijuana expert, Kees Hoekert, succeeded in throwing a live chicken at the golden state coach. He had managed to convince security guards that ‘the bird was called Eibertje Vos and that it wanted to have look at the queen’.
11. The city has developed its own uniquely Amsterdammer interpretation of the law, by which authorities are entitled to prosecute a crime but are not obliged to do so – especially in cases where its prosecution is deemed more damaging than the offence itself, as with soft drugs or prostitution.
12. This book is richly researched, well annotated, and comes in a fluent, unimposing translation by Philipp Blom. It makes me feel that I need to read more Dutch history; how can you not love a place where major upheavals are called things like The Hook and Cod Wars and The Eel Uprising?
1. Amsterdam has a long history of thriftiness, of modesty. In the eighteenth century, Widow Pels, the city's richest inhabitant, had no more than five servants. In the 1990s, a local executive wrote to airline KLM to ask them to tone down their business-class service: ‘A cheese sandwich and a glass of milk are more than enough as far as I am concerned.’
2. If you want to ward off witchcraft, you can follow the example of one medieval Amsterdammer, who hung ‘a pot full of new needles into which she had pissed’ over the fire. (It may not have worked – she ended up confessing to having bewitched cattle, and was burned at the stake on the Dam.)
3. At the height of the tulip mania of the seventeenth century, the most prized variety was called Semper Augustus. It had ‘impeccably white petals with small veins of a fiery red running though them, the base of the bloom as blue as the skies’. A single bulb cost 5,000 guilders, which was about the same price as a house with large garden. (Presumably a garden with no Semper Augustuses in it.)
4. The poor in early modern Amsterdam had two ways out. For women, prostitution (natch); for men, the near-suicidal VOC ships to the East Indies. These were supplied with crews in large part through groups of pressgangers known as zielverkopers (soul merchants), and between shipwrecks and disease little more than a third of sailors would make it back alive. The prostitution, meanwhile, was even then something of a draw for the city, with the best girls having their own well-known nicknames: ‘The Northern Cat’, for instance, or ‘Sweetie Cunt’.
5. Actually, all women in Amsterdam society were known for their forwardness. When Casanova visited in 1759, he was amazed to be placed in a closed carriage alone with a beautiful 14 year old; ‘Here we learn to be independent,’ she said, seeing his surprise. When he tried to kiss her hand, she merely said, ‘Why my hand?’ Instead, according to his memoirs,
she gave me a kiss that went straight to my heart. However, when she told me she would do the same in the presence of her father, should I enjoy it, I did not pursue the matter any further.
6. The nineteenth century was surprisingly quiet given the artistic and social upheavals taking place in other parts of Europe. While various modernisms were being explored in Paris, Willem Bilderdijk and Da Costa founded a society in Amsterdam called ‘Misgivings About the Spirit of the Age’ (!). In 1848 some Communists organised a jobless rally; but when hundreds of people actually showed up, they were so surprised that no one dared to address the crowd, and eventually everyone wandered off home again.
7. Amsterdam has a marked absence of monuments or state buildings; Mak refers to this as its anti-monumentalism, and he considers it characteristic of the city's undemonstrative psyche, not just a function of confused civic planning processes. ‘The number of monumental buildings in Amsterdam dating from the nineteenth century can be counted on the fingers of one hand.’ The main surviving example now is Central Station, which was pushed through from The Hague and widely regarded by authorities in Amsterdam itself as a disaster, ‘an eternal and irreversible mistake’. It finally cut the old town off from the IJ, destroying its character as a true port city and ending the vistas of ship's masts and rigging that had previously dominated locals' and visitors' impressions of the place. This was followed by the filling in of nearly twenty canals, generally to become new streets.
8. Sex work attempted to become slightly more discreet in the twentieth century. Two personal ads from the 1910s weekly Pst-Pst:
FOR RENT: A SPACIOUS SITTING- AND BEDROOM IN THE PIJP, RENT 200 FLORINS A MONTH, INCLUDING USE OF GAS LIGHT AND OF A CHARMING 18-YEAR-OLD LADY. LETTERS UNDER NUMBER…
I NEED AN HEIR. MY HUSBAND IS NOT IN ANY STATE TO PROVIDE ONE. WHO WILL DO SERVICE AS CREATOR? LETTERS UNDER "CREATOR" TO NUMBER…
9. Mak is scathing on Amsterdam's self-image as a city that was full of resistors during the German occupation, noting that most authorities complied with the Nazi regime unquestioningly. Many saw themselves as minor bureaucrats, arranging for a certain train to run from A to B; the fact that the cargo was Jews did not concern them. In fact the train used to transport Jewish Amsterdammers to the camps in Germany and Poland was the same one every time, and some passengers realised this and hid letters on board for others to read. They tell of the arduous journey, how one girl sang songs, how a man told jokes to keep people's spirits up.
But always the last sentence of these notes is the same. ‘We have stopped at Auschwitz. We have to get out. It is a large factory city, because you can see a lot of chimneys.’ Or: ‘In the distance there is a building which is lit. 'Bye everyone, we'll be back soon.’
Of the 80,000 Jews in Amsterdam before the war, 5,000 were left alive when the city was liberated in 1945. Mak notes that ‘proportionally more Jews were deported from the Netherlands than from any other Western European country’.
10. In the 60s the city had its own crazy countercultural group known as the Provos (not to be confused with the Provisional IRA; in this case the word came from ‘provoke’). They liked to shout incomprehensible slogans at the police, like ‘Gnot!’ or ‘Smurf the ones who smurf the smurfs!’ Indeed, they had a plan to turn the local policeman into a sort of social worker who would carry ‘matches and contraceptives and also oranges and chicken drumsticks for the hungry proletariat’. When they protested at Princess Beatrix's wedding, a marijuana expert, Kees Hoekert, succeeded in throwing a live chicken at the golden state coach. He had managed to convince security guards that ‘the bird was called Eibertje Vos and that it wanted to have look at the queen’.
11. The city has developed its own uniquely Amsterdammer interpretation of the law, by which authorities are entitled to prosecute a crime but are not obliged to do so – especially in cases where its prosecution is deemed more damaging than the offence itself, as with soft drugs or prostitution.
12. This book is richly researched, well annotated, and comes in a fluent, unimposing translation by Philipp Blom. It makes me feel that I need to read more Dutch history; how can you not love a place where major upheavals are called things like The Hook and Cod Wars and The Eel Uprising?
April 11, 2022
I read this in preparation for my trip to Amsterdam and had decided to rate it upon my return, for fair judgement. I thus give it a solid 5 stars, it proves impossible not to just walk the streets of Amsterdam without going back to some titbit read in some chapter in this book that was evidently written by minutious research and fondness for this great city.
For example, Mak writes about the tradition of Amsterdam shops during the 12th century to always leave their doors and windows open, in order to encourage customers and facilitate trade.
Today, if you look out the window across the street of the charming 't Zwaantje restaurant on Berenstraat (Bears street), next to the Welvaren Bewaarschool that opened in 1830 (kindergarten for children whose parents are exclusively sailors), there are a few general clothing and souvenirs shops.
And lo and behold, even on a windy and rainy day, in the year of our lord 2022, their doors were still open.
More notes:
- The Story of Elsje Christiaens and Rembrandt's Hanging on a Gibbet (see here), 1664:
Elsje Christiaens, an 18-year old woman from Jutland was executed in May 1, 1664, just two weeks after her arrival in Amsterdam in April of that year. In a violent argument over unpaid rent, Elsje hit her landlady over the head with an axe and knocked her down the cellar stairs. She was exposed to viewers on the gibbet in the gallows field outside of Amsterdam along with the axe, the instrument of her crime.
Rembrandt must have gone to the gibbet almost immediately after the execution: in the drawing the corpse of the girl is still fresh. The drawings he made of Elsje differ from his other work during this period. It seems that he intended to capture the dead girl as realistically as he could, as though he wanted to freeze her death.
Several weeks later, the body of Elsje Christiaens was immortalized once more, this time by the painter Anthonie van Borssom (see here. He painted the gallows of the Volewijk with all the corpses hanging or sitting there at that time: we can now see the colours of her dress as well. We can see that Elsje had been wearing a red skirt and a grey jacket, but her body has slumped a good deal, the head especially, which has sagged by about two feet.
As can be read in the book of confessions, Elsje had been sentenced to be “eaten up by the air and by the birds of the skies . . . tied to a pole with a hatchet above her head”, and this is exactly what happened. From the same book we also know which men interrogated her and eventually decided upon her death: the aldermen Burg, Blaeu, Rochus van de Capelle, van Loon, Spieghel and Bronckhorst.
Without much difficulty we can find the ancestors of most of these men. Dirck Spieghel came from one of the oldest Amsterdam families. Burg, former ambassador to the Russian Court, was also a director of the Westindische Compagnie and administrator of the Amsterdam colony in North America.
Blaeu was no less than the famous cartographer Jan Blaeu, the publisher of the magnificent nine-part Grote Atlas van Blaeu (see here).
Those who determined Elsje’s fate were therefore perfect examples of the patrician families ruling Amsterdam, members that had a firm grip on power in the city. We know their self-satisfied faces from hundreds of portraits, including in two famous ones by Rembrandt: The Night Watch and The Anatomy Lesson.
***
Even more notes of historical interest:
- Sunday, 27 October 1275, Amsterdam first appears in the archival sources. In the document in question, Floris V, Count of Holland, grants freedom from taxation “to the people abiding near the Amsteldam”. When compared to other Dutch cities, it was a late bloomer: Dordrecht (1220), Haarlem (1245), Delft and Alkmaar (both 1246), all preceded Amsterdam by many years.
- the word gezelligheid, that curious Dutch atmosphere of snugness which is soft on the inside and hard on the outside.
- Around 1365, a remarkable 2,500 tons of beer was shipped into Amsterdam each month, a third of Hamburg’s total beer export.
- In 1398, a large expedition from Holland assaulted Friesland, Amsterdam sent four large vessels to be used as floating bakeries, each equipped with five bread ovens, while five flour ships accompanied these baking vessels. The expedition was a success.
- Witch-hunts: 27 November 1555, Meyns was sentenced to the stake for the crime of witchcraft by the Amsterdam magistrates, and subsequently “burned to powder” on the Dam. In the same year a certain Anne Jans was “doomed to the fire” in Amsterdam, together with her daughters Lijsbeth and Jannetje Pieters, because they had “hurt, pestered and bewitched several people and also beasts, and had been in alliance with Satan”.
- The Women’s Uprising: in 1531 the town magistrates decided to erect a building for the storage and taxation of wool in the courtyard of the Holy Place. A group of women protested by damaging the building site. Four richest women were banned from the city for four years unless they paid a fine of 50 guilders.
- Jan Goessens was ordered to make a pilgrimage because he had been heard to say of the Virgin Mary: “If Our Lady is so holy, how holy is the ass that carried her?”
- René Descartes wrote around 1635: “In this city there is nobody who does not trade in something. Everyone is so preoccupied by his own profit that I could live here for all my life without ever being noticed by anyone.”
John Locke wrote his Epistulae de Tolerantia in Amsterdam, among other works. Baruch de Spinoza found the leisure and freedom here to conduct researches, just as did the painter and inventor Jan van der Heijden and the composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. Jan Swammerdam laid the foundations for the science of biology and of entomology.
Voltaire, who visited Amsterdam seven times and had his work published here, remarked that it made no difference to the Dutch whether they traded in books or in textiles, and that it did not concern them one bit what was written in these books as long as they made money out of them.
- The diary of Wouter Jacobszoon (1522–95) is a rare source of thoughts during one of the darkest periods in the history of Amsterdam: Catholic citizen's experiences during the Eighty Years War of 1568–1648, a rebellion of burghers against feudal rule, of merchants against nobles, and of a new era against the Middle Ages.
- The fluyt was developed in the 1590s, a revolutionary type of ship in its time, half as expensive to build as other ships of comparable size, and capable of being sailed by ten men, where other vessels of similar displacement required crews of at least thirty. In the middle of the seventeenth century, the Dutch had more than 700 ships at sea, a fleet larger than the English, Scottish, and French fleets combined. Between 1600 and 1800, a total of 9,641 ships sailed from Europe to Asia. Almost half of these, 4,720, came from Holland.
- During the Great Frost, on 8 January 1767 the merchant Jacob Bicker Raye noted in his diary: “It is bitterly cold, and freezing so strongly that, even as I write and despite the large fire blazing beside me, the ink is freezing in my pen.”
- In 1893, on a single misty December evening in 1893, 96 Amsterdammers fell into the canals.
For example, Mak writes about the tradition of Amsterdam shops during the 12th century to always leave their doors and windows open, in order to encourage customers and facilitate trade.
Today, if you look out the window across the street of the charming 't Zwaantje restaurant on Berenstraat (Bears street), next to the Welvaren Bewaarschool that opened in 1830 (kindergarten for children whose parents are exclusively sailors), there are a few general clothing and souvenirs shops.
And lo and behold, even on a windy and rainy day, in the year of our lord 2022, their doors were still open.
More notes:
- The Story of Elsje Christiaens and Rembrandt's Hanging on a Gibbet (see here), 1664:
Elsje Christiaens, an 18-year old woman from Jutland was executed in May 1, 1664, just two weeks after her arrival in Amsterdam in April of that year. In a violent argument over unpaid rent, Elsje hit her landlady over the head with an axe and knocked her down the cellar stairs. She was exposed to viewers on the gibbet in the gallows field outside of Amsterdam along with the axe, the instrument of her crime.
Rembrandt must have gone to the gibbet almost immediately after the execution: in the drawing the corpse of the girl is still fresh. The drawings he made of Elsje differ from his other work during this period. It seems that he intended to capture the dead girl as realistically as he could, as though he wanted to freeze her death.
Several weeks later, the body of Elsje Christiaens was immortalized once more, this time by the painter Anthonie van Borssom (see here. He painted the gallows of the Volewijk with all the corpses hanging or sitting there at that time: we can now see the colours of her dress as well. We can see that Elsje had been wearing a red skirt and a grey jacket, but her body has slumped a good deal, the head especially, which has sagged by about two feet.
As can be read in the book of confessions, Elsje had been sentenced to be “eaten up by the air and by the birds of the skies . . . tied to a pole with a hatchet above her head”, and this is exactly what happened. From the same book we also know which men interrogated her and eventually decided upon her death: the aldermen Burg, Blaeu, Rochus van de Capelle, van Loon, Spieghel and Bronckhorst.
Without much difficulty we can find the ancestors of most of these men. Dirck Spieghel came from one of the oldest Amsterdam families. Burg, former ambassador to the Russian Court, was also a director of the Westindische Compagnie and administrator of the Amsterdam colony in North America.
Blaeu was no less than the famous cartographer Jan Blaeu, the publisher of the magnificent nine-part Grote Atlas van Blaeu (see here).
Those who determined Elsje’s fate were therefore perfect examples of the patrician families ruling Amsterdam, members that had a firm grip on power in the city. We know their self-satisfied faces from hundreds of portraits, including in two famous ones by Rembrandt: The Night Watch and The Anatomy Lesson.
***
Even more notes of historical interest:
- Sunday, 27 October 1275, Amsterdam first appears in the archival sources. In the document in question, Floris V, Count of Holland, grants freedom from taxation “to the people abiding near the Amsteldam”. When compared to other Dutch cities, it was a late bloomer: Dordrecht (1220), Haarlem (1245), Delft and Alkmaar (both 1246), all preceded Amsterdam by many years.
- the word gezelligheid, that curious Dutch atmosphere of snugness which is soft on the inside and hard on the outside.
- Around 1365, a remarkable 2,500 tons of beer was shipped into Amsterdam each month, a third of Hamburg’s total beer export.
- In 1398, a large expedition from Holland assaulted Friesland, Amsterdam sent four large vessels to be used as floating bakeries, each equipped with five bread ovens, while five flour ships accompanied these baking vessels. The expedition was a success.
- Witch-hunts: 27 November 1555, Meyns was sentenced to the stake for the crime of witchcraft by the Amsterdam magistrates, and subsequently “burned to powder” on the Dam. In the same year a certain Anne Jans was “doomed to the fire” in Amsterdam, together with her daughters Lijsbeth and Jannetje Pieters, because they had “hurt, pestered and bewitched several people and also beasts, and had been in alliance with Satan”.
- The Women’s Uprising: in 1531 the town magistrates decided to erect a building for the storage and taxation of wool in the courtyard of the Holy Place. A group of women protested by damaging the building site. Four richest women were banned from the city for four years unless they paid a fine of 50 guilders.
- Jan Goessens was ordered to make a pilgrimage because he had been heard to say of the Virgin Mary: “If Our Lady is so holy, how holy is the ass that carried her?”
- René Descartes wrote around 1635: “In this city there is nobody who does not trade in something. Everyone is so preoccupied by his own profit that I could live here for all my life without ever being noticed by anyone.”
John Locke wrote his Epistulae de Tolerantia in Amsterdam, among other works. Baruch de Spinoza found the leisure and freedom here to conduct researches, just as did the painter and inventor Jan van der Heijden and the composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. Jan Swammerdam laid the foundations for the science of biology and of entomology.
Voltaire, who visited Amsterdam seven times and had his work published here, remarked that it made no difference to the Dutch whether they traded in books or in textiles, and that it did not concern them one bit what was written in these books as long as they made money out of them.
- The diary of Wouter Jacobszoon (1522–95) is a rare source of thoughts during one of the darkest periods in the history of Amsterdam: Catholic citizen's experiences during the Eighty Years War of 1568–1648, a rebellion of burghers against feudal rule, of merchants against nobles, and of a new era against the Middle Ages.
- The fluyt was developed in the 1590s, a revolutionary type of ship in its time, half as expensive to build as other ships of comparable size, and capable of being sailed by ten men, where other vessels of similar displacement required crews of at least thirty. In the middle of the seventeenth century, the Dutch had more than 700 ships at sea, a fleet larger than the English, Scottish, and French fleets combined. Between 1600 and 1800, a total of 9,641 ships sailed from Europe to Asia. Almost half of these, 4,720, came from Holland.
- During the Great Frost, on 8 January 1767 the merchant Jacob Bicker Raye noted in his diary: “It is bitterly cold, and freezing so strongly that, even as I write and despite the large fire blazing beside me, the ink is freezing in my pen.”
- In 1893, on a single misty December evening in 1893, 96 Amsterdammers fell into the canals.
June 13, 2016
Before my first visit, I wanted to read something that would give me a relatively quick, interesting overview of the history of Amsterdam from its beginnings to the present and this is pretty much what Geert Mak gives us in his book. I'll be visiting for only a few days but I feel that I have a good sense of the many layers of the city, especially its social and political history. I wish Mak had given a bit more on the history of the arts, literature, and music in Amsterdam, but that's a fairly minor complaint. I found Mak's account of the 17th and 18th centuries particularly fascinating and his account of World War II and its aftermath is heartbreaking. He's particularly good at using accounts by individuals from their journals for an "on-the-ground" view of life in these periods, and equally good at contextualizing these lives by pulling back and giving us an overview of the politics and planning of the city.
January 1, 2018
Alweer een schitterend boek van Geert Mak over de geschiedenis van Amsterdam. Geert is de leraar die je graag met geschiedenis of maatschappijleer voor de klas had gezien. Eenmaal begonnen is het bijna onmogelijk een boek van hem neer te leggen.
August 6, 2012
So begins the summer vacation report. I've now exhausted Geert Mak's library that's been translated into English. In this book, he takes up Amsterdam, and traces the city from past to present. My main knock with large stretches is that my knowledge of the city simply wasn't strong enough to have context for the places he named. The book itself seemed well researched and drew good connections. Its strongest sections was the 1930s and 1940s, when Mak takes a hard look at the city and country's response to fascism within Netherlands and then the Nazi invasion. Like with "In Europe," he pulls no punches about how truly heroic (and mostly non heroic) the city's residents were. That was followed by the most disappointing chapter tracing the city since the war to the present (1994), which felt rush and overly focused on one event to the detriment of talking about others.
Good read, and undoubtedly more enjoyable for those who've spent longer in the city.
Good read, and undoubtedly more enjoyable for those who've spent longer in the city.
May 11, 2021
Really well organized and riveting. A very Dutch - nonglamorous, real version of Amsterdam's history. I tried to read it before I lived here and it was uninteresting and too specific in locations and detail. Now that I have lived here for 4.5 years, and know the streets and the neighborhoods, it was great.
I didnt read it on a kindle so could not save my highlights -
But I wlll save a few here.
In the late 1660's France, England and Spain were attacking AMsterdam
Maak says " These unexpected attacks were motivated largely by economic rivalries, but there was also an important ideological element: the absolute monarchies of Europe had had enough of the Republics's freedoms of speech, ideas and religion, the satirical prints and forbidden books, suppressed elsewhere in Europe, which streamed forth from the tolerant Holland."
Regarding the Nazi occupation, the book is sad and truthful about the lack of resistance in Holland.
"this passive guilt, the guilt felt by those who have allowed something terrible to happen, explains why the Dutch population developed such a vicious anger against everyonr who had formally been on the wrong side during the war, while genuine collaborators were often ignored. The guilt of the idle spectator still hovers like a cloud over the entire city.
I didnt read it on a kindle so could not save my highlights -
But I wlll save a few here.
In the late 1660's France, England and Spain were attacking AMsterdam
Maak says " These unexpected attacks were motivated largely by economic rivalries, but there was also an important ideological element: the absolute monarchies of Europe had had enough of the Republics's freedoms of speech, ideas and religion, the satirical prints and forbidden books, suppressed elsewhere in Europe, which streamed forth from the tolerant Holland."
Regarding the Nazi occupation, the book is sad and truthful about the lack of resistance in Holland.
"this passive guilt, the guilt felt by those who have allowed something terrible to happen, explains why the Dutch population developed such a vicious anger against everyonr who had formally been on the wrong side during the war, while genuine collaborators were often ignored. The guilt of the idle spectator still hovers like a cloud over the entire city.
to-read-non-fiction
August 1, 2015I will read this for an overview of the Dutch scene before other books.
February 27, 2019
Wat is de Nederlandse geschiedenis soms toch leuk! Leuk boek voor mijn inburgering als nieuwe Amsterdammer :)
May 27, 2021
Voor de helft van de prijs was de prijs-kwaliteit goed geweest. De tweede 200 pagina’s zijn aan te raden.
February 17, 2016
A really fascinating read, I love Amsterdam and all its quirks and this is a good introduction to those historical peculiarities.
Why didn't I like it? Phillip blom (a German living in London translating Dutch) did a fairly poor job translating, half of me wants to rewrite the whole thing in to flow better (the other half wants to get paid for such a task)
But also geert mak, in attempting to make it all fit as a narrative, gets far to lyrical in his phrases. The first few and the last few pages are shit, while he's actually telling you about Amsterdam are great.
Tldr- a solid middle of the road history book, easy read if you can get past random awkwardnesses in the translation :p
Why didn't I like it? Phillip blom (a German living in London translating Dutch) did a fairly poor job translating, half of me wants to rewrite the whole thing in to flow better (the other half wants to get paid for such a task)
But also geert mak, in attempting to make it all fit as a narrative, gets far to lyrical in his phrases. The first few and the last few pages are shit, while he's actually telling you about Amsterdam are great.
Tldr- a solid middle of the road history book, easy read if you can get past random awkwardnesses in the translation :p
September 14, 2014
Ottima indagine storoca della capitale olandese.
March 27, 2016
I read this book with great interest and pleasure. I read it before going to Amsterdam turning my visit into a history dive!
January 8, 2017
3,5 Ster! Fijn boek, vooral het deel dat tot 1900 reikte, leerde me veel nieuws over de stad waar ik woon, en waar ook mijn voorouders van 1760 tot 1866 woonden. Mooie aanleiding tot verder lezen.
August 24, 2017
Llàstima no haver-lo pogut disfrutar plenament; l'anglès era massa literari i se'm feia farragós d'entendre.
December 21, 2025
Enjoyable and fast reading history of Amsterdam by Dutch historian Geert Mak, translated by Philipp Blom. It covers the history from founding through the mid-1990s (published 1994). Has several excellent maps, black and white illustrations throughout the text, a bibliography, and a readable section of notes at the end.
I really enjoyed how the author would stop during different points of Amsterdam history and describe the sights, sounds, smells of typical life in the city at the at time, noting such as how the city operated at night or what people ate or how they got around, very vivid. Even further, the author would focus on particular people and describe their Amsterdam, notably Wouter Jacobszoon (1522-1595, an Augustinian monk who wrote “the first real diary to come down to us from Amsterdam history,” his account a vivid portrait of religious turmoil), Elsje Christiaens (an 18-year-old woman, newly arrived in the city, executed for murder in 1664, her body hung for all to see and drawn by Rembrandt, the art now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, discussing what led to her to execution and her life in 17th century Amsterdam), and Jacob Bicker Raye (Amsterdam merchant who kept a diary between 1732-1772, who seemed to like to record how life was really cheap and “led the life of a gossiping civil servant”).
The author did a great job of noting as a narrative thread the history of Dutch tolerance of different philosophies and religion (going back centuries) but also taking care to note when Amsterdam wasn’t tolerant (particularly during the age of religious wars) as well as noting the “fissure separating the old Amsterdam of God’s Blessing from the new Amsterdam of Good Fortune,” with medieval Amsterdam having its last real moment in the early 1500s.
The author didn’t lionize Amsterdam and definitely noted when religious fervor and intolerance was dominant for a time, how daily life for centuries could be really tough (with people just starving to death or dying of exposure in full view of others), when after the heights of the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century Amsterdam became for a time rather provincial and backwater (a “burnt-out world city”), the massive amount of collaboration of the Dutch during the German occupation in World War II, and how a number of collaborators never faced justice while those who were in the Resistance actually faced some stigma. He did praise the city, noting the average person’s love of paintings during the Golden Age, its revival again into a “bustling harbor city,” how democratic ideals and the concepts of the Enlightenment were such an important part of Dutch politics, the vibrant Jewish community prior to World War II, how the Dutch worked together during the Hunger Winter of 1944-1945, and the progressive politics post war as the people debated should it be a museum city or a “modern business city.”
Coverage of how the Little Ice Age affected Amsterdam was fascinating; the “eighteenth century was the century of cold and of the Great Frost.”
Complaints? A few sections could be a little dry. Some topics only got a few pages such as the Iconoclastic Fury and the Alteration and slavery could have been more extensively discussed. There were passages where the author rattled off the names of Dutch neighborhoods and cities that were unfamiliar to me completely; I still understood the context of what was said as far as larger points, but referencing this small city or that neighborhood rarely meant anything to me. A few times in discussing post-World War II history it almost read like the author assumed I already had familiarity with some of the players and events. At least no extensive chapter discussing football, something some British authors about the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain feel they need to include.
I really enjoyed how the author would stop during different points of Amsterdam history and describe the sights, sounds, smells of typical life in the city at the at time, noting such as how the city operated at night or what people ate or how they got around, very vivid. Even further, the author would focus on particular people and describe their Amsterdam, notably Wouter Jacobszoon (1522-1595, an Augustinian monk who wrote “the first real diary to come down to us from Amsterdam history,” his account a vivid portrait of religious turmoil), Elsje Christiaens (an 18-year-old woman, newly arrived in the city, executed for murder in 1664, her body hung for all to see and drawn by Rembrandt, the art now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, discussing what led to her to execution and her life in 17th century Amsterdam), and Jacob Bicker Raye (Amsterdam merchant who kept a diary between 1732-1772, who seemed to like to record how life was really cheap and “led the life of a gossiping civil servant”).
The author did a great job of noting as a narrative thread the history of Dutch tolerance of different philosophies and religion (going back centuries) but also taking care to note when Amsterdam wasn’t tolerant (particularly during the age of religious wars) as well as noting the “fissure separating the old Amsterdam of God’s Blessing from the new Amsterdam of Good Fortune,” with medieval Amsterdam having its last real moment in the early 1500s.
The author didn’t lionize Amsterdam and definitely noted when religious fervor and intolerance was dominant for a time, how daily life for centuries could be really tough (with people just starving to death or dying of exposure in full view of others), when after the heights of the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century Amsterdam became for a time rather provincial and backwater (a “burnt-out world city”), the massive amount of collaboration of the Dutch during the German occupation in World War II, and how a number of collaborators never faced justice while those who were in the Resistance actually faced some stigma. He did praise the city, noting the average person’s love of paintings during the Golden Age, its revival again into a “bustling harbor city,” how democratic ideals and the concepts of the Enlightenment were such an important part of Dutch politics, the vibrant Jewish community prior to World War II, how the Dutch worked together during the Hunger Winter of 1944-1945, and the progressive politics post war as the people debated should it be a museum city or a “modern business city.”
Coverage of how the Little Ice Age affected Amsterdam was fascinating; the “eighteenth century was the century of cold and of the Great Frost.”
Complaints? A few sections could be a little dry. Some topics only got a few pages such as the Iconoclastic Fury and the Alteration and slavery could have been more extensively discussed. There were passages where the author rattled off the names of Dutch neighborhoods and cities that were unfamiliar to me completely; I still understood the context of what was said as far as larger points, but referencing this small city or that neighborhood rarely meant anything to me. A few times in discussing post-World War II history it almost read like the author assumed I already had familiarity with some of the players and events. At least no extensive chapter discussing football, something some British authors about the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain feel they need to include.
May 14, 2021
Another fantastic read in my literary journey trying to discover the history of the city which I unexpectedly call my temporary home.
From medieval mediocre town to a fabulous and bursting capital of trade and free mind in the 17th centre, Amsterdam is a city which underwent an extraordinairy change and brought a lot of new wind to the world.
Like every story of every kind, aside success there are also aspects to city’s development which do not receive admiration, or rather the opposite. I especially enjoyed the section on the WWII, and the author’s open take on what probably can be called the biggest shame of the city - its relative obedience to the nazi regime and elimination of a significant part of Amsterdams population and heritage - its jews.
Highly recommend this book to everyone seeking to better undestand Amsterdam and its rich history.
From medieval mediocre town to a fabulous and bursting capital of trade and free mind in the 17th centre, Amsterdam is a city which underwent an extraordinairy change and brought a lot of new wind to the world.
Like every story of every kind, aside success there are also aspects to city’s development which do not receive admiration, or rather the opposite. I especially enjoyed the section on the WWII, and the author’s open take on what probably can be called the biggest shame of the city - its relative obedience to the nazi regime and elimination of a significant part of Amsterdams population and heritage - its jews.
Highly recommend this book to everyone seeking to better undestand Amsterdam and its rich history.
April 27, 2023
3.5 stars. I was looking for a nonfiction history of Amsterdam to read so that I would have context and background knowledge of the area before visiting. This book fit the bill. It was a bit dry and took a month to read, but I did learn a lot and found myself sharing tidbits with my family as I read.
January 2, 2022
Geert Mak schrijft ontzettend boeiend en engagerend - de perfecte manier om je in de geschiedenis te verdiepen. Een aanrader voor iedereen die interesse heeft in het verleden van onze prachtige hoofdstad.
March 1, 2019
Turns out Amsterdam is a very pleasant but not especially historically interesting city.
July 21, 2023
Geert Mak is als een etenswaar dat beter wordt met de tijd.
April 20, 2024
Would have been 2 but there were some bits that were dece. Not technically a "good read".
August 15, 2025
Geert Mak heeft met Een kleine geschiedenis van Amsterdam een boek geschreven dat even toegankelijk als rijk is. Waar veel geschiedschrijving zich verliest in droge feiten en jaartallen, weet Mak steeds de menselijke maat te bewaren. Hij vertelt de geschiedenis van de stad alsof je door de straten wandelt en luistert naar de stemmen van de bewoners, van middeleeuwse kooplieden tot hedendaagse stedelingen.
Het boek is een chronologische reconstructie van Amsterdams ontwikkeling, ook een portret van een mentaliteit. Mak laat zien hoe een kleine nederzetting aan de Amstel uitgroeide tot een wereldstad, gedreven door handel, tolerantie en strijd. Van de eerste dijken en sluizen, via de gouden eeuw met haar ongekende rijkdom en ongelijkheid, tot de verzuiling en de moderne tijd: elke periode krijgt kleur door de manier waarop Mak de verhalen van gewone mensen verweeft met de grote gebeurtenissen.
Wat het boek bijzonder maakt, is de balans tussen helderheid en diepte. Mak schrijft toegankelijk, maar verliest de nuance nooit. Hij schetst hoe Amsterdam altijd een paradox is geweest: een stad van vrijheid en openheid, maar ook van uitbuiting en scherpe tegenstellingen.
Voor wie de stad kent, is het een feest van herkenning: plekken die je misschien dagelijks passeert, blijken beladen met eeuwen geschiedenis. Voor wie de stad niet kent, is het een meeslepende inleiding in het unieke karakter van Amsterdam.
Een kleine geschiedenis van Amsterdam is veel meer dan een historisch overzicht. Het is een levendig verhaal over een stad die altijd in beweging is geweest, en die tot op vandaag de belichaming vormt van zowel idealen als tegenstrijdigheden. Geert Mak bewijst zich opnieuw als een van de beste vertellers van onze nationale geschiedenis.
Het boek is een chronologische reconstructie van Amsterdams ontwikkeling, ook een portret van een mentaliteit. Mak laat zien hoe een kleine nederzetting aan de Amstel uitgroeide tot een wereldstad, gedreven door handel, tolerantie en strijd. Van de eerste dijken en sluizen, via de gouden eeuw met haar ongekende rijkdom en ongelijkheid, tot de verzuiling en de moderne tijd: elke periode krijgt kleur door de manier waarop Mak de verhalen van gewone mensen verweeft met de grote gebeurtenissen.
Wat het boek bijzonder maakt, is de balans tussen helderheid en diepte. Mak schrijft toegankelijk, maar verliest de nuance nooit. Hij schetst hoe Amsterdam altijd een paradox is geweest: een stad van vrijheid en openheid, maar ook van uitbuiting en scherpe tegenstellingen.
Voor wie de stad kent, is het een feest van herkenning: plekken die je misschien dagelijks passeert, blijken beladen met eeuwen geschiedenis. Voor wie de stad niet kent, is het een meeslepende inleiding in het unieke karakter van Amsterdam.
Een kleine geschiedenis van Amsterdam is veel meer dan een historisch overzicht. Het is een levendig verhaal over een stad die altijd in beweging is geweest, en die tot op vandaag de belichaming vormt van zowel idealen als tegenstrijdigheden. Geert Mak bewijst zich opnieuw als een van de beste vertellers van onze nationale geschiedenis.
June 8, 2023
A simple but interesting summary of Amsterdam's history. At times I felt a little bit lost in the chronology as the writer jumps back and forth in time while retelling an event (for example, Rembrandt's life) and I missed a bit more detail surrounding certain topics (for example the assassination of Willem van Oranje-Nassau). But overall I enjoyed reading this book, I learned a lot about my neighbourhood and recommend it to other history and/or Amsterdam lovers.
September 27, 2025
occasionally dense but also so so cool to read while here! it’s cool to see the city from so many perspectives in the places i walk every day
October 17, 2024
Als luisterboek niet te doen, maar ook om te lezen lijkt mij dit boek niet de moeite waard. Er worden weinig risico’s genomen, voor lezers die bekend zijn met de Nederlandse geschiedenis is dit erg saai en weinig vernieuwend.
Na de 18e eeuw gestopt met luisteren.
Na de 18e eeuw gestopt met luisteren.
February 21, 2023
Leuk om te lezen, pakkend geschreven, zeker de moeite waard.
January 5, 2018
Amsterdam. A little jewel. A little museum. A little piece of your heart. Mak's book entinces the reader to walk with him through the centuries' layers of brick, sweat, chatter, sails and time, across the canals and into the buildings. The walls sometimes talk to you. His approach to this work is historic intermingled with journalistic techniques - a little family story here, a lovers' spat over there, bankruptcy and madness all thrown in to make the perfect page-turner. Indeed as he says, cities are tough institutions. Once established, they are very hard to knock down. I loved his comments on Amsterdammers, their portrayal as global but yet very rooted people, visionaries such as the Jewish businessman Samuel Sarphati, coupled with local gossip journalists of dubious credibility, but also resistance fighters and bankers Wallie and Gijs van Hall. What struck particularly was the detail about city planning, the filling out of major canals, and the surfacing of new waterways, the creation of Central Station apparently the worst decision ever. The city's lack of Gallic monumentalism an indication of both its sobriety and its anti-conventionalism. Across time, Amsterdam develops, progresses and regresses through countless expansions and retractions, business successes and war crime collaboration (probably the city's worst indictment - about 80% Jews deported and killed), immigration and emigration waves, Sephardic Jews, Eastern Europeans, Germans, French Huguenots, Belgians, and even Indian dockworkers in the Dutch colonial and trading heyday. Calvinism seeps through the cultural fabric of the people and their actions, public policy decisions often made on very pragmatic stances. Wibaut, a public Health Commissioner in the early 20th century, pushed through the building of an enlarged city, creating new spaces for the ever increasing population. Miranda planned and helped regenerate old decrepit inner city quarters. The Great Expansion Plan created by the genius of Cornelis van Eesteren in 1934 was the first of its kind to consider city demogrphic expansion into the future millennium (2000). The last section tells the terrible facts about Nazi occupation and Dutch collaboration. Wak comments that at this time there is 'little scope for self-congratulation' in Amsterdam. Well into the 70s and 80s, the city fights for a new order, a new planning ideal. Old or new? City museum or bustling business city?The road into the 21st century leads to new unprecedented challenges. What's certain is that whether near or far, love it or hate it, individuals who have visited Amsterdam somehow feel they want to absorb part of its spirit. A really good book, I tried to slow my reading down so I could savour its little quirky details. I personally think it's a fine example of Dutch gezelligheid.
September 26, 2014
Inhoud:
Het verhaal over Amsterdam vanaf ongeveer 1150 tot het heden. De opkomst van Amsterdam als een land in een land, waar mensen samen tegen de gevestigde orde, de regentes en regeerders optreed als het de Amsterdammers niet zint. Amsterdam die door de eeuwen heen verschillende oorlogen heeft doorstaan en verschillende wisselingen van regeerders heeft doorstaan, staat nog overeind met respect, maar ook met ongeloof. Waar grote steden in het buitenland te maken hebben gehad met veranderingen van gebouwen en culturele omslagen waardoor er een culturele erfgoed bestaat uit verschillende periodes, houd Amsterdam vast aan wat zij denkt dat voor haar geschiedenis belangrijk is. En ja, gelijk heeft ze. Er staan niet veel oude gebouwen die de eeuwen hebben doorstaan. Maar Amsterdam staat er wel met haar grachten (voor een groot deel gedempt), haar oude huizen in de binnenstad, haar blokkendoos wijken aan de buitenranden en haar kleine monumenten voor de verschillende oproermomenten door de eeuwen heen. Maar vooral staat Amsterdam er door haar solidariteit en tegelijk haar eenzaamheid. Haar tolerantie voor de verschillende culturen en de veranderingen die het heeft moeten doorstaan en nog steeds moet doorstaan. Maar altijd zal het een land in een land blijven.
Tevens is er een aanvulling van noten, bibliografie en registers.
Waardering:
4 sterren, omdat het een stuk geschiedenis weergeeft van mijn stad. Ondanks dat ik net als zo velen ben vertrokken uit Amsterdam (in mijn geval vooral uit liefde voor een partner), blijft Amsterdam de stad van mijn hart. In dit boek herken ik een stuk geschiedenis (vooral de laatste hoofdstukken vanaf de jaren 80) en leer ik een stuk geschiedenis die je niet tot nauwelijks in geschiedenisboeken tegen komt. Dit zijn verhalen die je moet zoeken, maar die het waard zijn om als echte Amsterdammer te weten. Heerlijk om te lezen.
Het boek is in duidelijke taal zonder opsmuk geschreven. Je zou het in een paar dagen uitgelezen kunnen hebben wil je er echt voor zitten. Je leest niet alleen glorieuze en trotse verhalen, maar ook de andere kant van wat er gebeurt. De kant armoede, de doden, de vervolgingen (zonder helpers) en de oproeren die er in de geschiedenis van Amsterdam hebben gespeeld. Maar dat alles maakt Amsterdam, Amsterdam de stad die het nu is.
Overige boekinformatie:
Uitgeverij: Olympus onderdeel van Contact
ISBN: 90.254.9972.4
©1994, 2003 Geert Mak
Omslagontwerp: Geert de Koning
Omslagillustratie: J. Braakensiek - "Hartjesdag Warmoesstraat, Amsterdam" Amsterdam Historisch Museum
Illustratieverantwoording:
Het dubbelportret blz. 47 Historisch museum
afbeeldingen blzn. 155, 229,237 en 301 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam
Rembrandt blz. 135 Metropolitan Museum van Art, New York
Kaarten getekend door Sander van Ooijen
Het verhaal over Amsterdam vanaf ongeveer 1150 tot het heden. De opkomst van Amsterdam als een land in een land, waar mensen samen tegen de gevestigde orde, de regentes en regeerders optreed als het de Amsterdammers niet zint. Amsterdam die door de eeuwen heen verschillende oorlogen heeft doorstaan en verschillende wisselingen van regeerders heeft doorstaan, staat nog overeind met respect, maar ook met ongeloof. Waar grote steden in het buitenland te maken hebben gehad met veranderingen van gebouwen en culturele omslagen waardoor er een culturele erfgoed bestaat uit verschillende periodes, houd Amsterdam vast aan wat zij denkt dat voor haar geschiedenis belangrijk is. En ja, gelijk heeft ze. Er staan niet veel oude gebouwen die de eeuwen hebben doorstaan. Maar Amsterdam staat er wel met haar grachten (voor een groot deel gedempt), haar oude huizen in de binnenstad, haar blokkendoos wijken aan de buitenranden en haar kleine monumenten voor de verschillende oproermomenten door de eeuwen heen. Maar vooral staat Amsterdam er door haar solidariteit en tegelijk haar eenzaamheid. Haar tolerantie voor de verschillende culturen en de veranderingen die het heeft moeten doorstaan en nog steeds moet doorstaan. Maar altijd zal het een land in een land blijven.
Tevens is er een aanvulling van noten, bibliografie en registers.
Waardering:
4 sterren, omdat het een stuk geschiedenis weergeeft van mijn stad. Ondanks dat ik net als zo velen ben vertrokken uit Amsterdam (in mijn geval vooral uit liefde voor een partner), blijft Amsterdam de stad van mijn hart. In dit boek herken ik een stuk geschiedenis (vooral de laatste hoofdstukken vanaf de jaren 80) en leer ik een stuk geschiedenis die je niet tot nauwelijks in geschiedenisboeken tegen komt. Dit zijn verhalen die je moet zoeken, maar die het waard zijn om als echte Amsterdammer te weten. Heerlijk om te lezen.
Het boek is in duidelijke taal zonder opsmuk geschreven. Je zou het in een paar dagen uitgelezen kunnen hebben wil je er echt voor zitten. Je leest niet alleen glorieuze en trotse verhalen, maar ook de andere kant van wat er gebeurt. De kant armoede, de doden, de vervolgingen (zonder helpers) en de oproeren die er in de geschiedenis van Amsterdam hebben gespeeld. Maar dat alles maakt Amsterdam, Amsterdam de stad die het nu is.
Overige boekinformatie:
Uitgeverij: Olympus onderdeel van Contact
ISBN: 90.254.9972.4
©1994, 2003 Geert Mak
Omslagontwerp: Geert de Koning
Omslagillustratie: J. Braakensiek - "Hartjesdag Warmoesstraat, Amsterdam" Amsterdam Historisch Museum
Illustratieverantwoording:
Het dubbelportret blz. 47 Historisch museum
afbeeldingen blzn. 155, 229,237 en 301 Gemeentearchief Amsterdam
Rembrandt blz. 135 Metropolitan Museum van Art, New York
Kaarten getekend door Sander van Ooijen
January 19, 2023
Amsterdam, Geert Mak, 1994, translation Philipp Blom 1999, 338 pages, ISBN 0674003314
An interesting history (1180-1994) and character sketch of Amsterdam, written just after the foundations of a previously-unknown castle from 1300 were discovered in 1994.
Everything that was built sank into the mud. p. 20.
The greatest pride of the Dutch is perhaps that certain things did not happen: no appalling poverty, no large-scale racial unrest; even the sea has not flooded the country for many years. p. 2, but see poverty pp. 59, 93, 105, 157-158, 160-164, 170, 179, 191, 199-200, 236.
Money counts more than morality. [Not the fact but the relatively-hypocrisy-free admission sets the Dutch apart.] pp. 5, 77, 168-169.
1180 First twigs-and-clay buildings, on the few dry spots in the bog, ditched around for drainage. p. 10, 16. Floodwaters came up the ditches; lakes formed. Dykes were built. Rivers were dammed, with locks for ships and drainage. p. 11. The oldest archaeological artifacts are at a depth of 5 or 6 meters below the present surface of the city. pp. 14, 38.
1300 Amsterdam was a walled area about 0.3 mile by 0.6 mile along the mouth of the Amstel, with dykes holding back the river and sea, a castle, a Catholic church, and a few hundred houses. Map p. vi. pp. 8, 13, 17, 19. (The castle wall was found at a depth of 7 meters below the city surface in 1994. p. 15.) Cogs, seagoing, rounded, bargelike ships, capacity 100 tons, hauled grain, wood, salt. p. 21. Male weavers, potters, bakers, millers (wind-powered), brewers, medics began to do what had been the work of every woman. The men formed guilds to claim exclusive right to the trade. p. 26.
1368 Amsterdam with its one war cog was on the winning side in a war with Denmark. Amsterdam gained an outpost on the island of Schonen. pp. 31-32. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treat...
1400 Amsterdam's first stone house. p. 27. Chimneys enabled (smoke-free) upper storeys. p. 28.
1480 Printing presses were everywhere: the beginning of the end of the Middle Ages. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globa...
1500 Amsterdam had 10,000 inhabitants and 20 Catholic monasteries and convents. p. 44. More than half of Holland's inhabitants lived in towns. p. 55. More than 3/4 of a family's income was spent on food and the rest on rent, clothing, heat and light. Rye was the main food. Wages stagnated as prices rose: precious metals streamed into Europe. p. 63.
1508 City wall completed. p. 59.
1517 Martin Luther 95 theses, Wittenberg, Germany. p. 61.
1533-1576 Dozens of Anabaptists and Mennonites, and two Lutherans, were arrested in Amsterdam and beheaded, burned, drowned, or hanged. pp. 46-52, 55, 64-69.
1568-1648 Eighty Years' War: Dutch people try to shake off feudal Spanish rule. pp. 71-77, 79-89, 91. 1578: Rebels forcibly expelled Catholic leaders from Amsterdam, signifying the end of feudalism there. Amsterdam became the economic center of the world's first modern republic, two centuries before the French Revolution. Calvinism became the new official religion, though the unofficial religion, freedom of trade and of capital, dominated. p. 89. Amsterdam sold food, timber, and weapons, and loaned money, to its enemy, Spain. pp. 90-91.
1575 Amsterdam covered most of a square mile, much of it to be infilled by 1585. Map p. vii.
1600 Amsterdam's population was 50,000. p. 55. One of only about 40 cities worldwide with over 40,000 (including 6 in France, 7 in Spain, 7 in the Netherlands). p. 105. Antwerp's population had fallen from 100,000 to 49,000, after Spain reconquered it in 1585 and a pirate blockaded it, stopping its trade. p. 91. Immigrants to Amsterdam from the southern Netherlands brought silk, sugar-refining, diamond, and publishing industries, and art. p. 91. The newcomers changed the city's dialect. p. 91. Jewish refugees from the Portuguese Inquisition brought tobacco, diamond, and printing industries. Amsterdam was uniquely less-judgmental. p. 92-93.
1618-1648 Thirty Years' War brought refugees to Amsterdam. p. 99.
1635 Amsterdam existed for financial gain alone. "Everyone is so preoccupied by his own profit that I could live here all my life without ever being noticed by anyone." --René Descartes. p. 100.
1636 Though the average tulip bulb cost 3 guilders, prices for special ones were bid up to 5,000 guilders, the price of a house with a large garden. p. 155.
1650 Now a walled semicircle 2.5 miles across, much of it to be infilled to 1657 and thereafter. Headquarters of East India Company, West India Company, Admiralty, Stock Exchange. Map pp. viii-ix. Population 150,000. pp. 99, 127. More than 700 Dutch ships were at sea: more than English, Scottish and French combined. Most of the shipping income was from Europe, not the Indes. p. 120.
1663 December. Calvinist city fathers banned the traditional St. Nicholas gingerbread men as "idolatry" and "papist perversion." After a small children's riot, the ban was hastily lifted. p. 144. https://dannwoellertthefoodetymologis...
1700 Population 220,000. p. 127.
1722 The Dutch didn't care whether they sold books or textiles, nor what was in the books, so long as they made money. --Voltaire. p. 180.
1776 Thomas Jefferson borrowed from Dutch rebels' 1581 refusal to submit to the king of Spain. p. 181. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1...
1825 Steamboat service to London and Hamburg. p. 195.
1889 Central train station opened. It blocks the city center off from the waterfront. pp. 206-208.
1892 Merwede Channel connects Amsterdam to the Rhine. p. 206.
1893-1896 Amsterdam socialized its water, natural gas, bus, and phone services. pp. 214-215.
1900 Amsterdam population is over 500,000. p. 209.
1925 Population 700,000. p. 236.
1940-1945 German occupation of Amsterdam. Only 5,000 of Amsterdam's 80,000 Jews survived. p. 250-264. Dutch people did most of the arresting and transporting of Jews. pp. 264-269. The Amsterdam police were the worst. The Gestapo-collaborators remained in authority after the war. p. 278.
1956 Trade with Indonesia ceased. Amsterdam shipping, industry, employment, and population would fall. p. 298.
1980 Map pp. x-xi is now about a 7-miles-on-a-side square. (Total is about 85 square miles. Compare San Francisco, 47 sq. mi.)
1984 Population 200,000. p. 307.
2017 Amsterdam population 850,000 https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=...
Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amste...
An interesting history (1180-1994) and character sketch of Amsterdam, written just after the foundations of a previously-unknown castle from 1300 were discovered in 1994.
Everything that was built sank into the mud. p. 20.
The greatest pride of the Dutch is perhaps that certain things did not happen: no appalling poverty, no large-scale racial unrest; even the sea has not flooded the country for many years. p. 2, but see poverty pp. 59, 93, 105, 157-158, 160-164, 170, 179, 191, 199-200, 236.
Money counts more than morality. [Not the fact but the relatively-hypocrisy-free admission sets the Dutch apart.] pp. 5, 77, 168-169.
1180 First twigs-and-clay buildings, on the few dry spots in the bog, ditched around for drainage. p. 10, 16. Floodwaters came up the ditches; lakes formed. Dykes were built. Rivers were dammed, with locks for ships and drainage. p. 11. The oldest archaeological artifacts are at a depth of 5 or 6 meters below the present surface of the city. pp. 14, 38.
1300 Amsterdam was a walled area about 0.3 mile by 0.6 mile along the mouth of the Amstel, with dykes holding back the river and sea, a castle, a Catholic church, and a few hundred houses. Map p. vi. pp. 8, 13, 17, 19. (The castle wall was found at a depth of 7 meters below the city surface in 1994. p. 15.) Cogs, seagoing, rounded, bargelike ships, capacity 100 tons, hauled grain, wood, salt. p. 21. Male weavers, potters, bakers, millers (wind-powered), brewers, medics began to do what had been the work of every woman. The men formed guilds to claim exclusive right to the trade. p. 26.
1368 Amsterdam with its one war cog was on the winning side in a war with Denmark. Amsterdam gained an outpost on the island of Schonen. pp. 31-32. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treat...
1400 Amsterdam's first stone house. p. 27. Chimneys enabled (smoke-free) upper storeys. p. 28.
1480 Printing presses were everywhere: the beginning of the end of the Middle Ages. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globa...
1500 Amsterdam had 10,000 inhabitants and 20 Catholic monasteries and convents. p. 44. More than half of Holland's inhabitants lived in towns. p. 55. More than 3/4 of a family's income was spent on food and the rest on rent, clothing, heat and light. Rye was the main food. Wages stagnated as prices rose: precious metals streamed into Europe. p. 63.
1508 City wall completed. p. 59.
1517 Martin Luther 95 theses, Wittenberg, Germany. p. 61.
1533-1576 Dozens of Anabaptists and Mennonites, and two Lutherans, were arrested in Amsterdam and beheaded, burned, drowned, or hanged. pp. 46-52, 55, 64-69.
1568-1648 Eighty Years' War: Dutch people try to shake off feudal Spanish rule. pp. 71-77, 79-89, 91. 1578: Rebels forcibly expelled Catholic leaders from Amsterdam, signifying the end of feudalism there. Amsterdam became the economic center of the world's first modern republic, two centuries before the French Revolution. Calvinism became the new official religion, though the unofficial religion, freedom of trade and of capital, dominated. p. 89. Amsterdam sold food, timber, and weapons, and loaned money, to its enemy, Spain. pp. 90-91.
1575 Amsterdam covered most of a square mile, much of it to be infilled by 1585. Map p. vii.
1600 Amsterdam's population was 50,000. p. 55. One of only about 40 cities worldwide with over 40,000 (including 6 in France, 7 in Spain, 7 in the Netherlands). p. 105. Antwerp's population had fallen from 100,000 to 49,000, after Spain reconquered it in 1585 and a pirate blockaded it, stopping its trade. p. 91. Immigrants to Amsterdam from the southern Netherlands brought silk, sugar-refining, diamond, and publishing industries, and art. p. 91. The newcomers changed the city's dialect. p. 91. Jewish refugees from the Portuguese Inquisition brought tobacco, diamond, and printing industries. Amsterdam was uniquely less-judgmental. p. 92-93.
1618-1648 Thirty Years' War brought refugees to Amsterdam. p. 99.
1635 Amsterdam existed for financial gain alone. "Everyone is so preoccupied by his own profit that I could live here all my life without ever being noticed by anyone." --René Descartes. p. 100.
1636 Though the average tulip bulb cost 3 guilders, prices for special ones were bid up to 5,000 guilders, the price of a house with a large garden. p. 155.
1650 Now a walled semicircle 2.5 miles across, much of it to be infilled to 1657 and thereafter. Headquarters of East India Company, West India Company, Admiralty, Stock Exchange. Map pp. viii-ix. Population 150,000. pp. 99, 127. More than 700 Dutch ships were at sea: more than English, Scottish and French combined. Most of the shipping income was from Europe, not the Indes. p. 120.
1663 December. Calvinist city fathers banned the traditional St. Nicholas gingerbread men as "idolatry" and "papist perversion." After a small children's riot, the ban was hastily lifted. p. 144. https://dannwoellertthefoodetymologis...
1700 Population 220,000. p. 127.
1722 The Dutch didn't care whether they sold books or textiles, nor what was in the books, so long as they made money. --Voltaire. p. 180.
1776 Thomas Jefferson borrowed from Dutch rebels' 1581 refusal to submit to the king of Spain. p. 181. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1...
1825 Steamboat service to London and Hamburg. p. 195.
1889 Central train station opened. It blocks the city center off from the waterfront. pp. 206-208.
1892 Merwede Channel connects Amsterdam to the Rhine. p. 206.
1893-1896 Amsterdam socialized its water, natural gas, bus, and phone services. pp. 214-215.
1900 Amsterdam population is over 500,000. p. 209.
1925 Population 700,000. p. 236.
1940-1945 German occupation of Amsterdam. Only 5,000 of Amsterdam's 80,000 Jews survived. p. 250-264. Dutch people did most of the arresting and transporting of Jews. pp. 264-269. The Amsterdam police were the worst. The Gestapo-collaborators remained in authority after the war. p. 278.
1956 Trade with Indonesia ceased. Amsterdam shipping, industry, employment, and population would fall. p. 298.
1980 Map pp. x-xi is now about a 7-miles-on-a-side square. (Total is about 85 square miles. Compare San Francisco, 47 sq. mi.)
1984 Population 200,000. p. 307.
2017 Amsterdam population 850,000 https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=...
Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amste...
March 7, 2016
[kesan awal setelah buku tiba:]
sebagai salah satu warga dari bangsa yang pernah mengalami kolonialisasi belanda, saya ingin tahu apakah kisah mengenai kota amsterdam ini juga menyertakan pandangan tentang jawa dan indonesia.
berabad-abad lamanya belanda menikmati banyak kekayaan alam nusantara, adakah yang sanggup mereka catat tentangnya? apakah amsterdam dan para amsterdamers punya kenangan mengenainya? rupanya tidak.
buku ini tidak menyinggung-nyinggung hal yang bagi saya butuh pengakuan itu.
menggunakan rentang waktu dari 1300 hingga 1980 sebagai lingkup kajian, buku ini menuliskan kisah kota tua itu melulu dari dalam. sibuk dengan data dan informasi dari dalam sendiri, tidak mengakui bahwa pertumbuhannya itu juga hasil interaksi dengan jaringan-jaringan yang sepanjang rentang waktu itu terkoneksi dengannya.
mungkin kumpulan dongeng, peta, ilustrasi, yang menghiasi dan dirajut sebagai kisah yang mengalir ini bagus untuk orang belanda sendiri, yang butuh juga sesuatu untuk membangun rasa cinta lewat kisah masa lalunya.
berbeda dari buku satu lagi [in europe:] yang "keluar" membandingkan kota-kota di satu benua, buku ini lebih ke dalam. yang sama dari kedua buku tadi adalah keduanya menggunakan definisi unit yang kaku untuk membahasnya: amsterdam [sebuah kota:] dan europe [sebuah benua:], seolah pertumbuhan sebuah kota itu tidak berinteraksi dengan kota lain. seolah kehidupan sebuah benua itu tidak berinteraksi dengan benua lain.
sebagai salah satu warga dari bangsa yang pernah mengalami kolonialisasi belanda, saya ingin tahu apakah kisah mengenai kota amsterdam ini juga menyertakan pandangan tentang jawa dan indonesia.
berabad-abad lamanya belanda menikmati banyak kekayaan alam nusantara, adakah yang sanggup mereka catat tentangnya? apakah amsterdam dan para amsterdamers punya kenangan mengenainya? rupanya tidak.
buku ini tidak menyinggung-nyinggung hal yang bagi saya butuh pengakuan itu.
menggunakan rentang waktu dari 1300 hingga 1980 sebagai lingkup kajian, buku ini menuliskan kisah kota tua itu melulu dari dalam. sibuk dengan data dan informasi dari dalam sendiri, tidak mengakui bahwa pertumbuhannya itu juga hasil interaksi dengan jaringan-jaringan yang sepanjang rentang waktu itu terkoneksi dengannya.
mungkin kumpulan dongeng, peta, ilustrasi, yang menghiasi dan dirajut sebagai kisah yang mengalir ini bagus untuk orang belanda sendiri, yang butuh juga sesuatu untuk membangun rasa cinta lewat kisah masa lalunya.
berbeda dari buku satu lagi [in europe:] yang "keluar" membandingkan kota-kota di satu benua, buku ini lebih ke dalam. yang sama dari kedua buku tadi adalah keduanya menggunakan definisi unit yang kaku untuk membahasnya: amsterdam [sebuah kota:] dan europe [sebuah benua:], seolah pertumbuhan sebuah kota itu tidak berinteraksi dengan kota lain. seolah kehidupan sebuah benua itu tidak berinteraksi dengan benua lain.
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