'Adam Sundberg demonstrates the enormous potential of historical disaster studies by using disasters as a lens to explore broader social, cultural, and environmental changes at the end of the Dutch Golden Age. Compellingly argued and vividly written, the book demonstrates that disasters were formative to Dutch identities.' Lotte Jensen, Radboud University Nijmegen
Introduction; 1. Rampjaar reconsidered; 2. 'Disasters in the year of peace': The first cattle plague, 1713–1720; 3. 'The fattened land turned to salted ground': The Christmas flood of 1717 in Groningen; 4. A plague from the sea: The shipworm epidemic, 1730-1735; 5.'Increasingly numerous and higher floods': The river floods of 1740–41; 6. 'From a love of humanity and comfort for the fatherland': The second cattle plague, 1744–1764; 7. The twin faces of calamity: Lessons of decline and disaster.