Acknowledgments
I was educated as an historian in modern European history, but my advisor, David Schoenbam, though that due to my background, I ought to try Dutch history, given that the Netherlands was an undervalued and little-known country. It was good counsel, for which I am grateful, and it resulted in my dissertation on the Netherlands in the 1960s. This specialization also led, after teaching Dutch history at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, to be asked to become professor of contemporary history at the Free University of Amsterdam before being asked to become professor of Dutch history since the Middle Ages at the University of Amsterdam. It was also about that time – in 2007 – that I was invited to write this book, though many projects got in the way of a timely completion of the work. The course I offered in Dutch history, along with my colleagues Peter van Dam and Paul Knevel, did serve as a basis for this book and for my own reflection on Dutch history, and without that experience the writing of this book would have been much more difficult. All of my colleagues at the section of Dutch history, which I had the privilege of leading, served as important inspiration for this work.
The book would not have been possible without several leaves of absence, including from the University of Amsterdam in 2013 and Utrecht University, my new employer, in 2015. Although I bear all responsibility for any errors, I have been tremendously aided by readers who helped spare me from worse: Peter van Dam, Mario Damen, Joost Jonker, Paul Knevel, Mart Rutjes, Catrien Santing and student assistant Kiki Varekamp.
Last of all I would like to thank my parents. As the son of a Dutch mother and American father, who traveled frequently during the summer months to the Netherlands from the United States, I had the great advantage of experiencing two sides of the Atlantic. Their reflections, their observations and their experiences as a Dutch-American couple have been seminal to my own understanding of the Netherlands and in the deepest sense, then, the book could not have been written without them.
