bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Internationalisering en de Nederlandse Opstand
Authors: Pollmann J. 
Published: September 2015

Internationalising The Dutch RevoltAt around 1960 the interpretations of the Dutch Revolt that were propounded in ‘grand narratives’ of sixteenth-century Europe, differed considerably from those on offer in the ‘national’ historiography of the Revolt. That this was to change drastically over the following five decades, was only partly due to changes in Dutch historiography. Most impulses to ‘internationalise’ interpretations of the Dutch Revolt came from outside the Low Countries. While Geoffrey Parker situated the Revolt in its Habsburg context, research into Netherlandish Protestantism also emphasised its international dimensions. Many political developments within the Low Countries, too, can best be understood in a European context. This article offers an analysis of this development, and explores what this might mean for our prospects for a new synthetic study of the Revolt of the Netherlands. This article is part of the special issue 'The Internationalization of the National History and the Pillarization'.
The Dutch Republic as a Bourgeois Society
Authors: Prak Maarten 
Published: September 2015

Historians have often portrayed the Dutch Republic as the first ‘bourgeois’ society. What they had in mind was an early example of a society dominated by the sort of middle class that emerged in most other European countries after the French and Industrial Revolutions. In this article, ‘bourgeois’ is perceived in a slightly different way. By looking at the ‘bourgeois’ as ‘citizens’ – often, but not necessarily, middle class in a social sense – the article paints a picture of a plethora of blossoming urban civic institutions. Such civic institutions also existed in other European countries. What set the Dutch Republic apart, however, and indeed made it an early example of a ‘bourgeois’ society, was the dominance of these civic institutions in the Republic’s socio-political life. This article is part of the special issue 'The International Relevance of Dutch History'.
The International Relevance of Dutch History: Closing Comments
Authors: Velde Henk te 
Published: September 2015

The contributions in this issue discuss the question of the relevance of Dutch history to an international public. The authors wish to avoid ‘exceptionalism’, but point – with the exception of the piece that examines the Holocaust – specifically to the particular in the Dutch past, focusing thereby on evergreen themes such as the Golden Age, the Dutch colonial empire and the role of religion. A great deal of attention is hereby devoted to the long perspective and the peculiar nature of Dutch ‘civil society’. The aim is not so much to focus on what is unique to the Netherlands – and certainly not to hold up the Netherlands as an example – but rather to attempt to explain the Netherlands on the basis of general issues drawn from historiographical debates. In this sense, the yardstick applied is the international world. Another striking feature of the contributions is that an analysis that takes a longer view – path dependency, ‘cultural freezing’ (Schrover) and traditions – is back with a vengeance. This article is part of the special issue 'The International Relevance of Dutch History'.
Telling Another Story of Europe: A Reply in Favour of Politics
Authors: Middelaar Luuk van 
Published: September 2015

Middelaar, Luuk van, De passage naar Europa. Geschiedenis van een begin (Dissertatie Universiteit van Amsterdam 2009; Groningen: Historische Uitgeverij, 2009, 531 blz., ISBN 978 90 6554 236 6). All three discussiants note the rich use of language in De passage naar Europa, but without linking it to the book’s discourse analysis or its alleged scarcity of social science. Words are not innocent, however; in political battles, even theoretical concepts are constantly being co-opted. To escape from existing connotations, we can either examine a vocabulary’s use (a well-known practice in intellectual history), or introduce new words (as I do with ‘passage’ or ‘sphere’). For good reason, history, political philosophy and law are the disciplines chosen to tell this story of Europe. The focus is neither on the Brussels institutions, nor just on Member States and national interests. Rather, it is the story of the ensemble of European states trying to become the political expression of the continent: of its birth and metamorphoses, its efforts to fill a space and find a voice. This review is part of the discussion forum 'De passage naar Europa. Geschiedenis van een begin' (Luuk van Middelaar).
De kunst van het verbergen. Een lichtzinnige naziprins en de Nederlandse monarchie (discussiedossier over Bernhard. Een verborgen geschiedenis)
Authors: Deneckere G. 
Published: September 2015

The Art of Dissimulation: A Frivolous Nazi Prince and the Dutch MonarchyAnnejet van der Zijl’s biography Bernhard. Een verborgen geschiedenis [Bernhard: A Hidden History] deftly interweaves the family history of the ‘Zur Lippe-Biesterfelders’ with the social decline of the minor German aristocracy in the period of the German Empire, World War I and the Weimar Republic. This results in a probing description of a time and a milieu in which anti-democratic, extreme right-wing forces came to full bloom. The exact consequences of Prince Bernhard’s anti-democratic attitude for the Dutch monarchy as an institution are less well examined, however. The fact that Bernhard as a person perhaps did not have character to play the role of dictator, does nothing to lessen the danger posed by the popularity he enjoyed among ‘the people’ in the extreme circumstances of World War II and, more specifically, its final phase. This review is part of the discussion forum 'Een verborgen geschiedenis' (Annejet van der Zijl).
Prins Bernhard: biografie van een publiek personage (discussiedossier over Bernhard. Een verborgen geschiedenis)
Authors: Grever M. 
Published: September 2015

Prince Bernhard: Biography of a Public RoleIn her biography Bernhard. Een verborgen geschiedenis [Bernhard: A Hidden History], Annejet van der Zijl strives to write unaffectedly about a controversial character, and to set out a human portrayal of Bernhard. But has this undertaking succeeded? This dissertation certainly demythologises the jovial prince with the carnation, making for an exciting read – but do we really get to know any more about the prince as a ‘man’? A question all the more relevant as the biography pretty much gives up describing his life after 1945. By placing the emphasis on the revelations – and as Van der Zijl assumes that Bernhard must have changed little between 1945 and 2004 – the story of Bernhard’s life takes on a hermetic quality. Which in turn means this is not so much the story of a human prince, but of a public role. This review is part of the discussion forum 'Een verborgen geschiedenis' (Annejet van der Zijl).
Catholic Identity and the Revolt of the Netherlands. A View from South of the Border (discussiedossier over Catholic Identity and the Revolt of the Netherlands, 1520-1635)
Authors: Diefendorf B.B. 
Published: September 2015

Pollmann, Judith, Catholic Identity and the Revolt of the Netherlands 1520-1635 (Past and Present; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, xiv + 239 blz., ISBN 978 0 19 960991 8). Judith Pollmann (Catholic Identity and the Revolt of the Netherlands, 1520-1635) argues persuasively that Netherlandish Catholics were slow to oppose the spread of heresy because their clergy encouraged passivity rather than resistance. This behavior contrasts strikingly with the active resistance posed to the spread of Calvinism in France and challenges French historians to question the assumption that violence was a natural response to the fracturing of community brought about by religious schism. Explanations of popular religious violence must nevertheless also consider their respective political contexts and the extent to which people trusted their rulers to suppress the threat of heresy. Pollmann’s further argument that the stunning Catholic revival that occurred in the Southern Netherlands could only occur when the clergy accepted the need to collaborate with pious lay people is also persuasive but might have been enriched by more consideration of the emergence of Catholic identities in Wallonia and among women. This review is part of the discussion forum 'Catholic Identity and the Revolt of the Netherlands 1520-1635' (Judith Pollmann).
Metropolis and Hinterland? A Comment on the Role of Rural Economy and Society in the Urban Heart of the Medieval Low Countries
Authors: Soens Tim , Onacker Eline Van , Dombrecht Kristof 
Published: September 2015

Urbanity was a distinguishing feature of the medieval Low Countries, but even in its most urbanised core a majority of the population continued to live outside the city walls. In his new and encompassing synthesis of the history of the Low Countries in the later Middle Ages, Wim Blockmans emphasises the fundamental intertwining of urban and rural societies in this region, but also the existing historiographical gap between urban and rural historians. This contribution pleads for a reconsideration of the impact of urbanisation and urbanity on rural society as a whole, exemplified for instance, by the role of urban demand as a driving force in the rural economy or by the spread of an ‘urban-modelled’ civic life beyond the city walls. Although every village community was in one way or another connected to the urban world, villages were not entirely shaped by the latter and striking regional differences in both economic development, social cohesion and political organisation persisted well beyond the medieval period. In order to explain these differences the endogenous dynamics of rural societies have to be taken into account. This review is part of the discussion forum 'Four Golden Ages' (Wim Blockmans).
Four Golden Ages: Regional Interdependency in the Low Countries
Authors: Blockmans Wim 
Published: September 2015

Although the Low Countries formed a political unity only for short periods they have been seen by other European nations as a region in its own right. What created some kind of unity, as experienced by the inhabitants? My concept started from the geographical conditions of a delta of three major rivers, in a generally flat area facilitating transport. This was a basic condition for urban growth. The core questions were therefore – what at different times in the various regions, led to that extraordinary level of urbanisation on a European scale? Why and how did the successive ‘golden ages’ come to an end, and what remained in the previous core areas? Why did some regions remain peripheral? How do the various aspects interrelate – geographical conditions, social and political institutional arrangements, economic developments, and how do cultural phenomena fit into these patterns? This response is part of the discussion forum 'Four Golden Ages' (Wim Blockmans).
Waarom historici daarbij hun eigen vak niet uit het oog mogen verliezen
Authors: Devos Carl 
Published: September 2015

Why Historians should also keep their own Field of Study in MindHistorians must pay more attention to the meaning of the logic of management or managerialism in politics. However, interdisciplinarity does not simply mean that subjects and methods of other disciplines can be copied into the science of history. Historians have an important unique selling proposition that should not be underestimated – the power to put novelty in perspective by historical insight. The techniques and methods of the science of history cannot be weakened simply in order to study topics that are popular or to participate in public discussions that are mainly inspired by other disciplines. This article is part of the forum 'Manager Politics'.
Countering Integration Pessimists: New Differentiation for the Integration Debates
Authors: Kortmann Matthias 
Published: September 2015

In this article Leo and Jan Lucassen’s analysis in Winnaars en verliezers [Winners and losers] of 500 years of immigration to the Netherlands is reviewed with regard to possible conclusions for the neighbouring country, Germany. Particularly since the recent migration history in both countries has been very similar, the authors’ disentanglement of complex migration politics and their differentiated assessment of integration processes in the Netherlands are also useful for the occasionally pessimistic German migration and integration debate. The authors show that prevailing negativist views on the integration of migrants can be countered successfully with more sophisticated analyses of the integration of different migrant groups into different societal realms. Furthermore, their examination of the – predominantly positive – integration history of earlier centuries helps to put current short-term problems into perspective. Nevertheless their analysis has some methodological shortcomings as sometimes (negative) quantitative results are contrasted with (positive) qualitative outcomes. Finally, policy conclusions would have been preferable, for example regarding the question of what can be learned from integration processes in previous centuries for integration problems of today. This review is part of the discussion forum 'Winnaars en verliezers' (Leo Lucassen and Jan Lucassen).
Maskerade van een Metgezel
Authors: Ebels-Hoving Bunna 
Published: September 2015

A Companion’s MasqueradeWhat was it like, in the nineteen-fifties, to study history at a Dutch university,to be appointed there (on the sole merit of some years’ experience of grammar school teaching) to a vaguely defined part-time assistant post, and to make one’s way professionally in the fast-growing academic community of post-war Holland? Can the three decades long personal history of a middle-of-the-road historian/ medievalist throw light on an as yet unwritten aspect of the ‘university history’ that is currently attracting growing attention? The three specialists who have been invited to comment on this last question have answered – if I read them correctly – in the affirmative, and do so with remarkable insight and empathy. Even so, they have their doubts, criticisms, and/or afterthoughts. Professor Boone, the medievalist, focusing on the parts in which I discuss teaching methods, stresses his belief in the continuity of our common basic attitudes, praises the practicality of my playful dialogue on annotation, but misses an index that offers guidance through the diversity of subjects. Professor Dorsman, specialist on ‘university history’, values the insight he gets into the ‘lived experience’ of an academic worker in the medieval field, but stresses the fact that institutional history, although expressis verbis not the subject of the book, nevertheless played its unseen part – which has conditioned the book’s setting in ways that now render its main content ‘really’ past history. (Which means more interesting, less relevant?) Another ‘point of absence’ he observes is the author’s apparent (?) lack of personal irritation: and here he touches on the central concern of Professor Mineke Bosch, modernist and gender-specialist. Wording her arguments carefully, she analyses the author’s ambition to offer a history of Dutch academic history from the perspective of an average, non-specific insider, who presents her professional activity in the standard way of ‘making history’: find the subject, get to know the sources, make the story, get it accepted. Step by step she re-sets this ‘history as companion’ as an egodocument whose specific genesis was partly shaped by gender, a fact that long went unacknowledged by the writing ego (f.) of the historian in the case. This response is part of the discussion forum 'Geschiedenis als metgezel' (Bunna Ebels-Hoving).
Representing Distant Victims: The Emergence of an Ethical Movement in Dutch Colonial Politics, 1840-1880
Authors: Janse Maartje 
Published: September 2015

This article attempts to add to our understanding of the relations between the Netherlands and its colonies in the little researched period of 1840-1880 when this relation became politicised. This was a direct result of a new notion of citizenship that developed after the 1848 constitution was implemented: many believed that citizens had now become accountable for government policies, that is, as far as they were acquainted with the effects these had abroad. Colonial issues were among the first for which citizens developed new protest forms and demanded that public opinion should be taken more seriously by the government. This means that not only what happened in the colonies influenced the shape and structure of Dutch politics in an important formative stage, but also that sentiments usually connected to the introduction of the Ethical Policy can be traced back much earlier than is often assumed. This article is part of the special issue 'A New Dutch Imperial History' and was nominated for the first Low Countries History Award in 2016 (for the best article in BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review over the years 2013-2014-2015).
A Belgian View of (the Debate on) ‘Dat nooit meer’ – ‘Never Again’
Authors: Aerts Koen 
Published: September 2015

While the booming field of memory studies is characterised by a lack of uniform and consistent methodology, Dat nooit meer [Never Again] seems to reject any theoretical analysis whatsoever. The author, Chris van der Heijden, relies on the journalistic motto ‘show, don’t tell’. Such a vision provides both the strength and the weakness of the argument. On the one hand he manages to dig up a wealth of empirical information; on the other hand, the evidence of his thesis is solely dependent on the selection of sources by the author. This book therefore is not only a challenge for Dutch war historiography, but also indirectly an urgent call for self-reflection on the international research on collective memories. To what extent is its associative and anecdotal argument a relevant interpretation of how Dutch society remembered and rewrote the past World War II? To what extent can we develop an epistemologically justified and adequate methodology that allows the analysis of the genesis of a collective memory? This review is part of the discussion forum 'Dat nooit meer' (Chris van der Heijden).
Tale after Tale after Tale: The Lost Chance of a Great Project
Authors: Wielenga Friso 
Published: September 2015

Chris van der Heijdens voluminous dissertation on the culture of memory in the Netherlands of the Second World War (Dat nooit meer [Never Again]) is disappointing on several counts: methodologically it does not meet the scientific standards, that should be expected from an academic historian and the book is more a compilation of stories than a coherent analysis. Moreover the author has a biased view on many aspects of his research theme. To mention only two examples, his view on the purge of Nazi collaborators is extremely simple and one-sided and this also applies to his description of the way the resistance against the Nazis was viewed after the war. Furthermore a fundamental problem is his moralistic tone in judging the way people looked back at the occupation period. Those who fit into his own view of the ‘grey past’ are treated approvingly, others are dispensed with in an unfair or ironical way. Van der Heijden does not see that black, white or grey, are not the right terms to describe the attitude of people during the war: the view has to be multicoloured. This also applies to the description of the culture of memory after 1945 and it’s just that colourfulness that is dramatically lacking in this book. This review is part of the discussion forum 'Dat nooit meer' (Chris van der Heijden).
'Het einde van de geesteswetenschappen 1.0' - 'The End of the Humanities 1.0'
Authors: Janssen Geert , Wils Kaat 
Published: September 2015

On 14th December 2012 Rens Bod delivered his inaugural address as Professor of Computational and Digital Humanities at the University of Amsterdam. Under the ominous title Het einde van de geesteswetenschappen 1.0 [The End of the Humanities 1.0], the lecture provided a spirited agenda for the future of the arts and humanities. This Forum of the BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review seeks to facilitate a discussion about Rens Bod’s ideas from the perspective of current historical science in the Netherlands and Belgium. For this purpose the editors have asked three historians with expertise in digital humanities – Inger Leemans, Andreas Fickers and Marnix Beyen – to engage with Bod’s agenda from their respective cultural, political and media historical perspective. This article is part of the forum 'The End of the Humanities 1.0'.
The Scent of the Digital Archive: Dilemmas with Archive Digitisation
Authors: Jeurgens Charles 
Published: September 2015

Archival infrastructure is changing at a rapid pace as a consequence of digitisation. The effort to digitise analogue collections seems to have benefits only for researchers. Still, only a fraction of analogue archive material is currently available in digital form. This article raises some of the problematic aspects about the practice of digitising analogue collections and their consequences for historical research. The dilemmas that confront archivists and historians are not easy to resolve: the digitisation of analogue collections is leading to two costly and co-existing infrastructures, while archival collections that are not digitised risk becoming marginalised. This article is part of the special issue 'Digital History'.