This book takes an interestingly different tack. As a 'cultural' history it makes no concession to narrative history, instead assuming that the reader is already at least somewhat familiar with the basic story of the early years of the Dutch Republic from the late 16th to the early 18th century. That said, I am only very roughly familiar with the period, but still found Schama's book an interesting read.

Schama uses a variety of starting points to discuss various elements in the development of a specifically Dutch culture. Things as varied as the interest in whale beachings, the inundation disasters, and the various approaches to childhood. Schama's interest is wide ranging and eclectic, and very strongly linked to the art of the period. The links he creates between the wider culture and both the high- and low-brow art of the period are insightful. If nothing else, this is a book to read before you visit the Rijksmuseum.

In particular Schama draws out the contradiction between the riches accumulated by the emerging mercantile capitalism of the Netherlands and domestic culture with an emphasis on a lack of ostentation, belief in the family, and approach to charity. Schama's thesis is that the Weberian emphasis on Calvinist asceticism as underpinning Dutch culture and the growth of a nascent capitalism is misguided. That Dutch culture is more complex than that.

This is not a Marxist history, economics and social structure do not feature. But as a detailed exploration of culture in the Dutch golden age with a strong emphasis on the art of the period, its different approach is fascinating.