Natural Disaster at the Closing of the Dutch Golden Age

By the early eighteenth century, the economic primacy, cultural efflorescence, and geopolitical power of the Dutch Republic appeared to be waning. The end of this Golden Age was also an era of natural disasters. Between the late seventeenth and the mid-eighteenth century, Dutch communities weathered numerous calamities, including river and coastal floods, cattle plagues, and an outbreak of strange mollusks that threatened the literal foundations of the Republic. Adam Sundberg demonstrates that these disasters emerged out of longstanding changes in environment and society. They were also fundamental to the Dutch experience and understanding of eighteenth-century decline. Disasters provoked widespread suffering, but they also opened opportunities to retool management strategies, expand the scale of response, and to reconsider the ultimate meaning of catastrophe. This book reveals a dynamic and often resilient picture of a society coping with calamity at odds with historical assessments of eighteenth-century stagnation.

Reviews & endorsements

'What do floods, worms, and cattle plague have to do with the decline of the Dutch Republic in the eighteenth century? Everything according to Sundberg. Weaving a skilful blend of archival reconstruction with theoretical insight, he presents a novel interpretation of the Dutch past that emphasises environmental changes in rural areas over socio-economic and cultural considerations in urban centres. A fine book.' Greg Bankoff, University of Hull

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Product details

• Date Published: January 2022
• format: Adobe eBook Reader

• isbn: 9781108924634
• availability: This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.