Hapsburg period and the Revolt, and 15% for the eighteenth-century denouement. It deals with all aspects of the history of the Republic, political, military and diplomatic as well as social, economic, religious, intellectual and cultural. It deals even-handedly with all seven provinces and avoids the excessively Hollandcentred approach that has impaired earlier works, while still doing full justice to the overwhelming preponderance of Holland over the other provinces, tracing its ascendancy back to the thirteenth century.
Israel's history of the Republic is admirably set in its wider international context. Not only is there a wealth of solid information on international relations, a field in which the author is an expert, but he also takes pains to elucidate the wider European significance of purely Dutch phenomena. He stresses, for example, that the Republic's elaborate system of public welfare, as a strategy for controlling the workforce, had no counterpart elsewhere. Similarly, in one of the most exciting chapters, dealing with late seventeenth-century intellectual life, he underlines the striking originality of radical Cartesian philosophy and liberal Coccean theology. The author also pays more than usual attention to the impact of the Republic on the adjoining German border-areas and on the Spanish (later Austrian) Netherlands.
The Dutch Republic is a book of immense learning. The bibliography fills almost sixty densely printed pages, an estimated 1,400 titles, more than three hundred of which relate to primary sources; and a number of references reveal that Professor Israel has more than occasionally backed up his reading with solid archival research. He never sits on a fence; there is always an argument. He is never afraid of overturning accepted truths and cherished historiographical beliefs. It is delightful to see how skilfully he arranges the evidence so as to lure the reader into sharing his view of a particular case. He argues, he debates, and then he stuns the reader with a sweeping statement: the ‘Calvinist revolution’ of 1618 marked ‘one of the most fundamental shifts of the Golden Age’, and the demise of William iii heralded ‘a profound change’ in the character of the United Provinces. But since he writes for a general public, his revisionism never turns into polemicism.
The most far-reaching instance of revisionism concerns the separation between north and south. Since Pieter Geyl, historians have been accustomed to regard the seventeen provinces of Charles v, despite their considerable mutual differences, as an increasingly coherent entity. Before the Revolt, it is argued, no meaningful distinction between north and south existed. The outcome of the Revolt, two separate and culturally distinct communities, was largely accidental, due to geographical and military factors, and had no roots in the past. Against this widely accepted view Jonathan Israel argues that the seven provinces north of the rivers Rhine and Maas did in fact have a distinct identity of their own. They constituted a separate political arena, had a well-defined common economic orientation and shared a number of cultural characteristics (though not, of course, a north-Netherlandish ‘national’ awareness). Seen from this perspective, the revolt of 1572 and the ensuing separation between north and south were merely the logical outcome of a duality that had existed for centuries.
There is no doubt that this thesis, directed against one of the most central tenets of Dutch and Belgian historiography, will provoke intense debate. Although Israel is right in stressing the long-term continuity in the relations between Holland and the north-eastern provinces, I would personally be inclined to discern at least four different areas: a highly urbanised, commercially and culturally advanced nucleus in the west (including Flanders and Brabant as well as Holland and Zeeland); the recently conquered, but highly independent north-east; the Walloon provinces with their aristocratic and clerical preponderance; and the backward, semi-feudal south-east, which played no significant role at all. This arrangement makes for a much more complex interplay of forces, which does not point to any ‘logical’ outcome of the Revolt. In fact, the Revolt enjoyed its most substantial support in the western core-provinces that were split in two in the course of the struggle.
However that may be, Jonathan Israel's Dutch Republic is an immensely stimulating book, a thoughtful synthesis that is scholarly, intelligently argued and elegantly written. It is indispensable for anyone interested in the history of the Netherlands or of early-modern Europe in general, a master-work bound to set the standard for future generations of historians.
henk van nierop
Jonathan Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall. 1477-1806. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995; 1,231 pp. isbn 0-19-873072-1.
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