Amsterdam
A History of the World's Most Liberal City
Published on 22. October 2013
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-1-4087-0347-2 (ISBN)
Description
Amsterdam is not just any city. Despite its relative size it has stood alongside its larger cousins - Paris, London, Berlin - and has influenced the modern world to a degree that few other cities have. Sweeping across the city's colourful thousand year history, Amsterdam brings the place to life: its sights and smells; its politics and people. Concentrating on two significant periods - the late 1500s to the mid 1600s and then from the Second World War to the present, Russell Shorto's masterful biography looks at Amsterdam's central preoccupations. Just as fin-de-siecle Vienna was the birthplace of psychoanalysis, seventeenth century Amsterdam was the wellspring of liberalism, and today it is still a city that takes individual freedom very seriously. A wonderfully evocative book that takes Amsterdam's dramatic past and present and populates it with a whole host of colourful characters, Amsterdam is the definitive book on this great city.
Reviews / Votes
The story of a great city that has shaped the soul of the world. Masterful reporting, vivid history - the past and present are equally alive in this book -- James Gleick, author of The Information: a History, a Theory, a Flood An often brilliant - and always enjoyable - investigation of liberalism's Dutch roots. Shorto is once again revealed as a passionate and persuasive historian of culture and ideas -- Joseph O'Neill, author of Netherland Shorto is an excellent storyteller and rootler of strange facts, and Amsterdam should be issued as standard kit for anyone visiting the city Guardian [Shorto's] fine portraits of individuals are in the Amsterdam tradition, and he has an Amsterdammer's feel for this backwater town that remains the world's laboratory of liberalism FT Rich and eventful ... [A] book that easily fuses large cultural trends with intimately personal stories New York TimesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Little, Brown Book Group
Illustrations
Section: 24, colour photos
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 41 mm
Weight
798 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4087-0347-2 (9781408703472)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Person
Russell Shorto is an American author, historian and journalist. His books have been published in nine languages and he is the contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and the director of the John Adams Institute in Amsterdam.