The book that first made Simon Schama's reputation when first published in 1987. This historical masterpiece is an epic account of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age of Rembrandt and van Diemen. 'This is history in the same spirit as Braudel, Ginzburg, Ladurie and Le Goff. It seems to me that Schama is one of the few historians writing in English today who can recreate the distinctive mentalite of another culture. ' Jonathan MillerIn this BRILLIANT work that moves far beyond the conventions of social or cultural history, Simon Schama investigates the astonishing case of a people's self-invention. He shows how, in the seventeenth century, a modest assortment of farming, fishing and shipping communities, without a shared language, religion or government, transformed themselves into a formidable world empire -- the Dutch republic.