Cosmopolitan, stylish, decadent, Amsterdam is a city of dreams and nightmares, of grand civic architecture but also a city of civil wars, uprisings and bloody religious purges. In his book, a journey through the turbulent history of one of Europe’s cultural capitals, Geert Mak shows his eye for the unexpected and the bizarre. A medieval lady’s shoe unearthed during building work; a Rembrandt sketch of a hanged girl; graffiti on the side of a grand house, foretelling the city’s doom, said to have been applied by a deranged burgomaster in his own blood. Using diaries and eyewitness accounts, Mak paints a vivid portrait of the city through the centuries: its bustling harbour, its grand houses, its slums, its fabled wealth, the catastrophic winters, bloody insurrections, and the evolution of the mentality that shaped it. He has produced an original and readable social history and an engaging alternative travel guide.