The five previous volumes of the Acta Historiae Neerlandicae appeared under the auspices of the Netherlands Committee for Historical Sciences. When in 1970 this Committee merged with the Historical Society to form the Dutch Historical Society (Nederlands Historisch Genootschap) an opportunity arose to rethink the aims of the Acta's original promotors. Also this sixth and succeeding volumes became the responsibility of the new combined Society as above. The volumes will from now on be published at The Hague by Martinus Nijhoff. From the early days of the Acta language barriers were broken down, and interested scholars from other countries could acquaint themselves with deve lopments in historical work in the Low Countries hitherto published only in Dutch. The Acta thus enabled discussion on Dutch historical topics to become international. However, initially subjects covered a wide field, not only of Dutch but also of general history, and articles were translated from Dutch not only into English but also into French and German. If sales can be taken as a guide, it appeared that scholars were not finding in the Acta precisely what they were seeking. Editors' expectations, and therefore their hopes, were, it was felt, going unrealised.

Volume VIII of Acta Historiae Neerlandicae again presents studies on the history of the Low Countries which it is hoped will be of interest to foreign scholars. The intention has been to deal with a fairly long period, and many differing aspects, of the subject. So institutional, political, economic, social and cultural history all receive a fair share of attention, and together the studies cover a considerable number of centuries. It is, however, striking to note how even this restricted number of studies reflects prevailing viewpoints among today's Low Countries' historians. Clearly there is considerable stress on economic and social questions. Traditional studies such as those of former Belgian historians on medieval history, or those of the Dutch on the seventeenth century, are now giving way to works that are problem directed. Power structures, the position of the bourgeoisie, reactions of the intelli gentsia and theologians to societal problems, have now more attraction for scholars than the glories of late medieval wealth in Flanders or Holland's Golden Age. Terms such as Guerilla warfare, Struggle, Depression, typify today's critical approach to society in general.

The editors of the seventh volume of Acta Historiae Neerlandicae have followed the same lines as those adopted for its predecessor. Studies have again been selected which throw light on the history of the Low Countries, the choice again being directed to subjects likely to be of interest to foreign scholars lacking knowledge of the Dutch language. For this reason articles fairly general in scope have been chosen: studies of local interest or concerned with matters of detail have not been included. In this volume a wide diversity of topics is treated. Included are studies in the economic and social history of the later Middle Ages, and on subjects in the fields of the sixteenth and early half of the eighteenth centuries. There are two articles on the nineteenth century Dutch statesman Thorbecke (1972 was the anniversary of his death). And there are also contributions on the homeland of Erasmus and on Dutch reactions to the publication of Darwin's Origins of Species. Also included are surveys of recent historical publications in the Netherlands and of those from Belgian historians that appeared in Dutch. A group of English historians, working under the guidance of Professor Swart, of University College, London, has surveyed the former, this article being edited by Mrs Alice Carter of the London School of Economics. The task of the late Professor Dhondt, of the University of Ghent, in connection with the survey of the Belgian contributions written in Dutch has been taken over by W.

The five review articles included in this volume were produced by the Dutch History Seminar of the University of London with the assistance of several Belgian and Dutch historians. They first appeared in the volumes VI-X of the Acta Historiae Neerlandicae (in 1978 renamed The Low Countries History Yearbook), a periodical published by the Dutch Historical Society with the objective of bringing new pUblications on the history of the Low Countries in the Dutch language to the attention of English-speaking historians. These articles have been republished and provided with indexes in the hope that in this form they will also prove to be useful to students of Belgian and Dutch history who have not been regular readers of the Acta. Should this pUblication be favourably received a subsequent volume covering the years 1976-1981 may be issued. THE EDITORS VII Survey of recent Dutch Historiography ALICE C. CARTER, Editor INTRODUCTION This bibliographical article has been put together by members of the Dutch history seminar held at London University's Institute of Historical Research. The article is intended for non-Dutch-reading scholars and indeed all who are interested in Netherlands history. An attempt has been made, and will continue to be made, to survey important works published in the year previous to that in which the article is drawn up. This year we have concerned ourselves with books or in the earlier part of 1971.