Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Preface: cultural geography in an age of encounter; 1. The Dutch discovery of America; 2. Revolutionary geography; 3. Innocence and commerce abroad; 4. A loss of innocence; 5. The rise and fall of America, or tyranny abroad; Epilogue: the Dutch and their new worlds; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Promotional Information

Innocence Abroad explores the encounter between the Netherlands and the New World in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Reviews

'While Spanish, French and English responses to the European discovery and settlement of America have been extensively studied, there has until now been no systematic survey of reactions in the Netherlands ... the gap has now been splendidly filled by Benjamin Schmidt's Innocence Abroad. Schmidt's book ... is attractively written and makes accessible a vast amount of fresh information.' History Today '... a very welcome book covering a wealth of sources and interpretations, beautifully enlarged upon in the copious notes.' History 'This is a book with the plot of Animal Farm, George Orwell's great Trotskyite attack on the history of the Soviet Union ... Schmidt's book is essentially one of intellectual history, or at least of the history of representations ... without major flaws ... he also provides much basis for comparative insights.' South African Historical Journal