This book reconstructs the manifold ways by which Dutch people of seventeenth-century New York took hold of the New World. As the author reminds us; the Dutch understood themselves to be republican; urban; mobile; mercantile; and amphibious; in short; properly Dutch. She shows how the Dutch possessed the land; traded over it; surrendered it to the English; and then lived out their lives balancing a "gaze" that the conquerors had for land against their own.
#2151794 in Books Hagemann Karen 2015-03-30Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.98 x 1.06 x 5.98l; #File Name: 0521152305497 pagesRevisiting Prussia s Wars Against Napoleon History Culture and Memory
Review
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Weak; needed a better editor and reviewerBy Jeffery E. MccullohUnfortunetly; while there is much solid research within this book; the modern interpretation and analysis is too often manipulated to fit the preconceived conceptual narrative arc. Hageman does a good job in summarizing earlier material on this subject; but there are dozens of glaring minor errors that compund to create a false history. For example; the section on the Iron Cross medal is a rewriting of earlier books; notably Williamson and Boelke; but then degenerated into nonsense as the author attempted to cram factoids into her analytical template. To be very clear; the battle bars she ascribes to the iron cross award were in fact for the Prussian vampaign medal; were privately purchased and only the certificates allowing their wear were awarded by the federal Chancellory. Ascribing these bars as an example of promoting the nationalist symbol of Prussian glory is simply wrong. In fact; these bars were a direct result of lobbying by the Officers' Associations following a series of articles in the Militaerwochenblatt about British campaign medals and their iconic " battle bars". A small thing to be sure; but the lobbyists directly appealed to Germanys's rising sense of nascent world power status in their appeals (" We must adopt the British example in this matter; for to do less implies we are less and our beloved old soldiers are not worthy" etc.) . The campaign medals were imperial awards; not Prussian ones and that spoke volumes in Wilhelmenian Germany; as their precedence directly demonstrated dominant political power was located in Berlin; not elsewhere. This is just one example; but I can list dozens of other errors and misinterpretations.
