How the Old World Ended
The Anglo-Dutch-American Revolution 1500-1800
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Narrated by:
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David de Vries
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By:
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Jonathan Scott
About this listen
A magisterial account of how the cultural and maritime relationships between the British, Dutch, and American territories changed the existing world order-and made the Industrial Revolution possible
Between 1500 and 1800, the North Sea region overtook the Mediterranean as the most dynamic part of the world. At its core, the Anglo-Dutch relationship intertwined close alliance and fierce antagonism to intense creative effect. But a precondition for the Industrial Revolution was also the establishment in British North America of a unique type of colony - for the settlement of people and culture, rather than the extraction of things.
England's republican revolution of 1649-53 was a spectacular attempt to change social, political, and moral life in the direction pioneered by the Dutch. In this book, Jonathan Scott argues that it was also a turning point in world history.
In the revolution's wake, competition with the Dutch transformed the military-fiscal and naval resources of the state. One result was a navally protected Anglo-American trading monopoly. Within this context, more than a century later, the Industrial Revolution would be triggered by the alchemical power of American shopping.
©2019 Jonathan Scott (P)2020 Tantorbrilliant
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Great exploration of an interesting time.
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appalling narration
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In audiobook form it's sadly let down by having hired someone who's tonally off (everything sounds like he thinks it's exciting, or a joke), and who hasn't bothered to do basic research into how to pronounce some key terms. How is it possible for someone talking about Anglo-Dutch trade networks in the 17th century to repeatedly pronounce Huguenot incorrectly? And given the author is a New Zealander, I'm amazed they hired someone who's apparently never heard the word Maori spoken out loud... "May-oar-ee"? Really?
That said, this was a period and topic I studied at university (my old tutor Julian Hoppitt gets a namecheck, as does his colleague in the same department Jonathan Israel, whose chunky history of the Dutch Republic has been gathering dust on the shelf for over a quarter of a century now), so nothing much here was new to me.
To warn Americans interested in their part of this story, this is far more about Britain (mostly England) and the Netherlands than it is the future US.
To warn everyone else, due to this focus, there's much one could argue has been left out - especially around republican and Enlightenment thinking from France and Italy.
However, the core argument - that Anglo-Dutch interactions were core to the evolution of the thinking that led to the industrial revolution and capitalism, and their own connections to ideas about independence and autonomy - is convincing. Even if it does get a little lost in the details - and distracted by some unnecessary asides about Brexit in an attempt to make it all seem more contemporary. (Although given Trump's return to office and escalation of his obsession with trade wars and tariffs, a focus on how trade is beneficial or negative to participants may have proven more useful here...)
Decent overview of Anglo-Dutch influence
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Fascinating summay and arguments
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