Netherlands

Dutch Letters from Ghana

Jos Damen tells the stories of two unusual men who lived a century apart in the Dutch colony at Elmina in West Africa; a poet who became a tax inspector and a former slave who argued that slavery did not contradict ideas of Christian freedom.

Amsterdam: City of lights

As a new installation at the National Gallery recreates Amsterdam’s red-light district, Melanie Abrams traces the history of Dutch liberalism.

The Origins of the Dutch Revolt

Geoffrey Parker examines the reasons Philip II of Spain was drawn into a lengthy and bitter conflict with his Low Country provinces.