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In the seventeenth century, the Dutch established a trading base at the Indonesian site of Jacarta. What began as a minor colonial outpost under the name Batavia would become, over the next three centuries, the flourishing economic and political nucleus of the Dutch Asian Empire. In this pioneering study, Jean Gelman Taylor offers a comprehensive analysis of Batavia’s extraordinary social world—its marriage patterns, religious and social organizations, economic interests, and sexual roles. With an emphasis on the urban ruling elite, she argues that Europeans and Asians alike were profoundly altered by their merging, resulting in a distinctive hybrid, Indo-Dutch culture. Original in its focus on gender and use of varied sources—travelers’ accounts, newspapers, legal codes, genealogical data, photograph albums, paintings, and ceramics—The Social World of Batavia, first published in 1983, forged new paths in the study of colonial society. In this second edition, Gelman offers a new preface as well as an additional chapter tracing the development of these themes by a new generation of scholars.
First systematic, inclusive study of the impact of the high civilizations of Asia on the development of modern Western civilization.
The book, in the words of the author, is his attempt to fulfill a long felt want of a complete, yet concise, account of the Dutch occupation of Ceylon 1640 to 1796. It is essentially a history of the Dutch people who came to the island, among which are included Joris van Spilbergan, Sebald de Weerd, Coster, Boreel, Francois Caron Maatzuyketo, Thysz, Kittensteyn, Van der Meiden, Hulft, etc. Through out the book valuable information is given about the political conditions and about the Dutch interactions with the Singhalese. Details of treaties and skirmishes are provided. The Dutch engagements with the Portuguese are also noticed. The book has a map of Ceylon and 12 other illustrations that portray key fingers and events.The book is a reprint of the 1929 edition.
Best known as the leading historian of French railways, François Caron has also done significant work on topics as varied as electricity, water and steam power, the theory of innovation, the structure of enterprise, and other aspects of economic development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this volume, he brings together these different facets of his expertise in order to present a broad panorama of modern technology. Caron shows how artisanal know-how was adapted, expanded, and formalized during the three industrial revolutions that swept over Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States in a comprehensive analysis of this long, complex, and continuous historical process, leading up to the twenty-first century. Thus, he illustrates the increasingly fruitful interaction between technological and scientific knowledge in modern times.
At the height of its power and influence in the seventeenth and eighteenth century the VOC - acronym for the United Netherland East India Company - was the greatest commercial concern in the world. The scope of its activities extended from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan. In some aspects, the Baltic trade and the North Sea fisheries were of more fundamental relevance for the economy of the Lowlands. But it was the more spectacular East Indian trade which aroused the admiration and the envy of foreigners, sometimes to the point of war. In this bibliography several topics are covered. Not only technical matters such as the legal status of the VOC, its management, directors and shareholders, but also subjects as voyages, battles, ship building, navigation, geography, natural history, ethnography, mission work, ministration, and many others. With 1674 entries, fully described and fully indexed.
Francis I's ties with the Ottoman Empire marked the birth of court-sponsored Orientalism in France. Under Louis XIV, French society was transformed by cross-cultural contacts with the Ottomans, India, Persia, China, Siam and the Americas. The consumption of silk, cotton cloth, spices, coffee, tea, china, gems, flowers and other luxury goods transformed daily life and gave rise to a new discourse about the 'Orient' which in turn shaped ideas about science, economy and politics, and against absolutist monarchy. An original account of the ancient regime, this book highlights France's use of the exotic and analyzes French discourse about Islam and the 'Orient'.
For review see: J. van Goor, in: Bijdragen en mededelingen betreffende de geschiedenis der Nederlanden, jrg. 110, afl. 1 (1995); p. 137-140.