In a brilliantly inventive work, bestselling author Simon Schama explores the enigma of 17th-century Holland, a nation that attained an unprecedented level of affluence, yet lived in constant dread of being corrupted by prosperity.
History on the grand scale...
An ambitious portrait of one of the most remarkable episodes in modern history.--New York Times Wonderfully inclusive; with wit and intense curiosity he teases out meaning from every aspect of Dutch seventeenth-century life.--Robert Hughes.
He tells us how the Dutch celebrated themselves and how they were slandered by their enemies.
He tells of bloody uprisings and beached whales, of the cult of hygiene and the plague of tobacco, of thrifty housewives and profligate tulip-speculators.
Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, Schama re-creates in precise detail a nation\'s mental state.
Schama explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up, attained an unprecedented level of affluence, and lived in constant dread of being corrupted by happiness. 314 photos & illustrations.
Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, THE Embarrassment OF RICHES throbs with life on every page.
In a brilliantly inventive work, bestselling author Simon Schama explores the enigma of 17th-century Holland, a nation that attained an unprecedented level of affluence, yet lived in constant dread of being corrupted by prosperity
