EAN: 9780307743756

AMSTERDAM - RUSSELL SHORTO KARTONIERT (TB)

An endlessly entertaining portrait of the city of Amsterdam and the ideas that make it unique 
by the author of the acclaimed Island at the Center of the World Tourists know Amsterdam as a
picturesque city of low-slung brick houses lining tidy canals  student travelers know it for
its legal brothels and hash bars  art lovers know it for Rembrandt's glorious portraits. But
the deeper history of Amsterdam  what makes it one of the most fascinating places on earth  is
bound up in its unique geography-the constant battle of its citizens to keep the sea at bay and
the democratic philosophy that this enduring struggle fostered. Amsterdam is the font of
liberalism  in both its senses. Tolerance for free thinking and free love make it a place where
in the words of one of its mayors  craziness is a value. But the city also fostered the deeper
meaning of liberalism  one that profoundly influenced America: political and economic freedom.
Amsterdam was home not only to religious dissidents and radical thinkers but to the world's
first great global corporation. In this effortlessly erudite account  Russell Shorto traces the
idiosyncratic evolution of Amsterdam  showing how such disparate elements as herring anatomy 
naked Anabaptists parading through the streets  and an intimate gathering in a
sixteenth-century wine-tasting room had a profound effect on Dutch-and world-history. Weaving
in his own experiences of his adopted home  Shorto provides an ever-surprising  intellectually
engaging story of Amsterdam.

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