Description: The Merchant Republics analyzes the ways in which three major economic powerhouses - Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg - developed dual identities as "communities of commerce" and as republics over the course of the long eighteenth century (c. 1648-1790). In addition to discussing the qualities that made these three cities alike, this volume also considers the very real differences that derived from their dissimilar histories, political structures, economic fates, and cultural expectations. While all valued both their republicanism and their merchant identities, each presented a different face to the world and each made the transition from an early modern republic to a modern city in a different manner.
Brief description: Mary Lindemann is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Miami. She is the author of four books and of numerous articles. She has also been the recipient of several major grants and awards, among them the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health; the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences and the Humanities; the Flemish Institute for Advanced Study; and the Shelby Cullom Davis Center, Princeton University, New Jersey.
Review Quotes: "The Merchant Republics expands outward from the most prominent North German commercial center, Hamburg, and presents it alongside Antwerp in the Southern Netherlands and Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic as part of an innovative and comparative study of three leading European commercial centers. Comparative history of this kind is a very difficult genre to produce, but Mary Lindemann has succeeded to a remarkable extent. This book is far more than three parallel studies within one book. By acknowledging the real contrasts between Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg, Lindemann is able to make some effective and revealing comparisons, located in the context of each city's earlier evolution, and to highlight the real similarities. Lindemann is one of the most distinctive voices currently writing about the 'long eighteenth century', and her latest book will add to her already high reputation."
Hamish Scott, University of Glasgow