This history of Belgium and the Netherlands is the first major study in English to treat them as nations in their own right, while placing them in a wider European and world context.

From 11 to 15 December 1972 a group of historians from many European countries assembled in Groningen to commemorate the centenary of Johan Huizinga's birth in that city on 7 December 1872. The conference was not intended simply as a tribute to the memory of a great historian but also as an attempt to assess the sig nificance of his work for the present generation. It was supported by generous grants from the Stichting oud-studentenfonds van 1906 at Groningen, the Gro ninger Universiteitsfonds, and the Ministry of Education and Science. We are pleased to be able to publish all the papers read at the conference, together with Dr. Jansonius's study of Huizinga's style, written for another occasion. The material is presented in a roughly chronological order. The first three papers, which examine Huizinga's intellectual and literary points of departure, are followed by another three dealing with The Waning of the Middle Ages. A special paper is de voted to Huizinga's Erasmian studies. The next three authors investigate the prob lems which preoccupied Huizinga during the 1930s. Three final papers examine general aspects of his work.

AS Dr. Coen Tamse points out in the introductory essay specially written for this volume, what we call myths are all too often the errors and misconceptions of others. Time being short and human un derstanding imperfect, it is wise to suppose that posterity will convict us all of thinking and acting in some sort within mythological uni verses; only a dead myth is by common consent recognized as a false reading of reality. And yet, in our troubled century, we have witnessed the deliberate fabrication of mythologies, apart from the inheritance of earlier growths like those which still feed nationalism and anti Semitism. It almost looks as if mass democracies positively require neatly packaged and emotionally charged explanations of the social and political environment as a substitute for religion. At all events, the modern science of public relations has advanced far enough for cer tain regimes, or for those who seek to overthrow them, to make a calculated appeal to the vanities, anxieties and frustrations of ordinary people by offering highly simplified explanations of a baffling world, often in easily grasped pictorial or dramatic forms, whether the object is to condition obedience or incite to 'struggle'. The advent of the mass media is generally, if unfairly, taken to have opened limitless new op portunities for the manipulation of our thought-processes, even below the threshold of consciousness.

From 11 to 15 December 1972 a group of historians from many European countries assembled in Groningen to commemorate the centenary of Johan Huizinga's birth in that city on 7 December 1872. The conference was not intended simply as a tribute to the memory of a great historian but also as an attempt to assess the sig nificance of his work for the present generation. It was supported by generous grants from the Stichting oud-studentenfonds van 1906 at Groningen, the Gro ninger Universiteitsfonds, and the Ministry of Education and Science. We are pleased to be able to publish all the papers read at the conference, together with Dr. Jansonius's study of Huizinga's style, written for another occasion. The material is presented in a roughly chronological order. The first three papers, which examine Huizinga's intellectual and literary points of departure, are followed by another three dealing with The Waning of the Middle Ages. A special paper is de voted to Huizinga's Erasmian studies. The next three authors investigate the prob lems which preoccupied Huizinga during the 1930s. Three final papers examine general aspects of his work.

EXCEPT for chapter 8, an editorial foot-bridge across the con fused years which separate the Dutch Republic from the King dom of the Netherlands, the essays collected in this volume were originally read and discussed at meetings of Dutch and British historians held between 22 and 27 September 1969 in a number of delightful comers of Groningen and Friesland. That this con ference took place at all was due in the first instance to the initiative and organizing genius of the Instituut voor Geschiedenis of the University of Groningen: particular thanks are due to the Rector Magnificus and his colleagues of that illustrious place of learning. On behalf of those fortunate enough to take part, we also wish to place on record our deep gratitude for the benevolent assistance of the Netherlands Ministerie van Onderwijs, of the H. S. Kammingafonds and of the Groninger Universiteitsfonds. As our sub-title strives to hint, the conference papers were commissioned with a view to stimulating historical awareness of a problem which is increasingly forcing itself on the attention of contemporary statesmen, administrators, sociologists and others - indeed of all who value local character and the human scale in the age of mass communications and socialized government.