The Netherlands was more than a pawn of the French during this
period, argues an Oxford and Cambridge student of J. H. Plumb in
this broad, profuse, yet tightly organized work; the Dutch strove
mightily for independence until finally crushed by Napoleonic
designs. Holland's Batavian Republic of 1797, born when the French
revolutionary army drove the British, Austrians, and Prussians out
of Holland, gave new life to the "Patriot" faction that had been
crushed a decade earlier, after which - as Schama documents - the
country suffered economic collapse to the point of gruesome
epidemics. The spokesmen of a national renaissance had looked
toward the American Revolution as the "holy sun" of progress; when
the French liberated them, however, there developed "the classic
irreconcilability within a revolution of its two primary
constituents - freedom and power." Political and intellectual
ferment mounted in the Free Corps and reading societies, but
disputes multipled over taxation, religion, and minority
aspirations. And leadership was thin, except for a few men like
Pieter Paulus, who died tragically in 1796 at the age of 42.
Finally Napoleon forced a Directorate on the divided country and
installed his brother Louis as regent, exacting hundreds of
millions of guilders for the empire. Above all, Schama blames
French developments for the failure of Dutch nationalism, while
limiting his discussion of the British role. But the book gives a
powerful sense of civil freedom, educational and legal reforms, and
sweeping excitement in the Netherlands between the French grant of
"liberty on the points of bayonets" and the Napoleonic clampdown,
itself cast in an acute light through Schama's material on the
strain of simultaneously promoting modernization and financing
continental wars. It is always good news when a traditional subject
of footnotes is made into a major, rewarding study; Schama's final
judgments will draw challenge, while his demonstration that the
spirit of the 17th-century Dutch Golden Age survived in
revolutionary form is an important (and delightfully written)
contribution. (Kirkus Reviews)
A reissue of Simon Schama's landmark study of the Netherlands from
1780-1813, this is a tale of a once-powerful nation's desparate
struggle to survive the treacheries and brutality of European war
and politics. Between 1780 and 1813 the Dutch Republic - a country
once rich enough to be called the cash till of Europe and powerful
enough to make war with England - was stripped of its colonies,
invaded by its enemies, driven to the edge of bankruptcy, and,
finally, reduced to becoming an appendage of the French empire - an
appendage not even the French seemed to value overmuch. Out of
these events Simon Schama has constructed a gripping chronicle of
revolution and privateering, constitutions and coups, in a tiny
nation desperately struggling to stay afloat in a sea of
geopolitics. Like his classics 'The Embarrassment of Riches' and
'Citizens', 'Patriots and Liberators' combines a mastery of
historical sources with an unabashed delight in narrative. The
result confirms Schama as a historian in the finest tradition - one
whose study of the past reveals volumes about the present. This is
one of our most revered historians' greatest works, and this new
Perennial edition will reintroduce his genius to a new generation
of readers.
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