1: Disappointed
If one is interested in the overly detailed political development of the Low Countries, this is the book for you. If you want to know more about the Frisians, the cities, and dike systems development, forget it. It was like telling the history of the U.S. without telling about the Native Americans or mentioning the cities like San Francisco. The many cities Like Leeuwarden and Harlingen played a great part in Netherlands history, but not mentioned. The Scots had special conditions awarded to them in the wool trade for almost 500 years and it is not mentioned. What happened to these Scots when this trade ended? I am disappointed.
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2: Window into a hidden history
It is next to impossible to find a comprehensive history book on the Netherlands or Belgium here in the USA. I got this book prior to a month long work assignment in Belgium so I could learn about these countries. Like many others people and armies, I've passed through the Low Countries without knowing anything about them but I've always been fascinated by them because the kept being mentioned as being vitally important in my reading of the histories of other countries, especially in their wars for independence: The US, Scotland, England, France, Spain.
How could these two tiny countries have had any impact on the world. Isn't the conventional wisdom that there was the Roman Empire, then Charlemagne, then Spain/Portugal, then England/France, then the US/USSR?
Although this is a text book it is engaging and easy to read. The story is fascinating. I am now the local expert on the history of the Low Countries and their place in world history.
I echo the comment on the more lackluster presentation of the more recent material. My only other criticism deals with the graphics. While the text was translated the maps were not. Many of the city names were presented in Dutch or French and were not easily discernible. Also, there should have been more maps and they should have been comprehensive. During the Roman era the map looked like it might have been drawn by a Roman. As the borders changed repeated over the millennia it would have been helpful to have a consistent map somewhere in the book for reference and scale. Maybe the blobs presented are recognizable to native lowlanders they were not to me.
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3: Good introduction into Dutch and Belgium history
This is a required textbook for history students at the University of Leiden (the Netherlands). Well actually, the untranslated, Dutch, version is.The book gives a good overview of the history of the Low Countries, starting with the Kelts, Romans and invading Germans, covering the Bourgondian Age, the dominion of the Habsburgers, the struggle for freedom, the golden age, the changing relationships between what is now called Belgium and the Netherlands, the importance of the religion and tolerance, ending the description in the mid 1990's. The book covers political history, but economic, social, cultural, and religious history as well. The language is clear, and no prior knowledge of this region, or its history is required. Four stars and not five, because the part dealing with the 20th century has less analytical qualities then the high standard set by the rest of the book. At the end of this readable and engaging book you'll know more about Dutch en Belgium history then most inhabitants of these countries do, and you'll understand some of the basic concepts still strong in Dutch foreign policies, and some of the structural internal problems Belgium still faces today.
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