The Embarrassment of Riches

An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age

By: Simon Schama

Narrated by: Mike Cooper

Simon 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. Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, Schama recreates in precise detail a nation's mental state. 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. He tells us how the Dutch celebrated themselves and how they were slandered by their enemies.

©1987 Simon Schama (P)2024 Tantor Media

AN ABSOLUTE LISTEN

What an amazing book. It is history at its best.
The author covers everything regarding Dutch life and mentality through the ages.
I grew up in Holland in the late 1940’s to the mid 1950’s, my teenage years.
The description and the mentality of the Dutch are spot on.
I don’t want to go into details, just that I highly recommend listening.
The Dutch have a great sense of humor, often not understood/ appreciated by Americans.
The narrator, Mike Cooper, does an amazing job pronouncing the Dutch words.
It is not an easy language to speak.
I am so sorry that it came to an end.
I have listened to other books by Simon Schama and will continue to do so in the future.
My thanks to all involved, JK

Great!

Not really a chronological but a psychological history of the Golden Age of the Netherlands. One learns more of what it means to be Dutch than a list of wars and conflicts.

Very detailed

This is (almost) a scientific study of Dutch history and culture. Very detailed, almost too much so for me. Being born and raised in Holland, there was much I recognized and much new stuff too. Very interesting to find out that certain traits or characteristics of our culture has roots that go back centuries.