This book is the first to look at the history of the Dutch Republic from a comparative perspective, and provides a reappraisal of key issues in Dutch history from the late-sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Contributors examine political, cultural, economic, and social developments in an interrelated way, and in doing so shed new light on historical developments in other parts of western and central Europe, including northern Italy, southern Germany, Flanders, and England.

Established in 1935, the International Institute of Social History (IISH) is one of the world's leading research institutes focused on social history and holds one of the richest collections in the field. This volume brings together thirty-five essays in honor of the IISH's longtime director Jaap Kloosterman, who built the institute into a world leader in the field.

Every age has had its rebels: socialists, peace activists, sexual reformers, fundamentalists, and more. The collections of the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam are full of them. The IISH is the world's largest documentation centre in the field of social history and emancipation movements. This book looks back on seventy-five years of the IISH and its collections, with a focus on creative ideas and people who fought for radical change, from Karl Marx to Aung San Suu Kyi, the French Revolution to the Chinese student revolt of 1989, from the early modern world...