De Moderne Tijd 3/4 (2021): ‘Grond van verbeelding’

Anneloek Scholten & Sophie van Os ‘Gij moet de heidegrond ontginnen. De Maatschappij van Weldadigheid en de cultivering van de bodem in de negentiende-eeuwse pers’ 251-267
https://doi.org/10.5117/DMT2021.3/4.002.SCHO
Abstract (EN)
‘You Must Cultivate the Heathland’ In the nineteenth century, debates surrounding the cultivation of Dutch soil and processes of civilisation were inextricably linked. This article examines the discourse surrounding cultivation of heathlands in newspaper reports about the Society of Benevolence in the 1820s and 1840s. It considers the way the cultivation of heathland in Drenthe is framed as a civilizing force and reflects on the tensions between nation and region in reporting on this issue, as local economic and cultural interests conflicted with nationalist visions of progress and the interests of urban investors. Comparing Dutch and British reports on the Society, the article also forms a starting point for a transnational perspective on this topic.
 
Tom Sintobin & Marguérite Corporaal‘Turf is nu eenmaal een vruchtbaar terrein voor de fantasie’. De literaire verbeelding van veen en veenderij in Nederlandse literatuur, 1909-194027-50
https://doi.org/10.5117/DMT2021.3/4.003.SINT
Abstract (EN)
‘After all peat is a fertile soil for the imagination’. The literary representation of bog and peat cutting in Dutch literature, 1909-1940 Novels about peat lands and turf-cutting were immensely popular in the Netherlands during the first decades of the twentieth century. This article traces recurring narratives and tropes in four such novels written by H.H.J.Maas, Antoon Coolen, Anne de Vries, and Theun de Vries, illustrating the ambivalent role that peat lands play in these texts. They function as sites of communality, future opportunity, and disorder on the one hand, and as places of exploitation and alienation on the other. These four novels do not downright reject the introduction of industrial innovations, but some among them are critical of the class divisions that may result. Others seem to acknowledge the hard labour that turf production involves, but do not criticize the social status of the peat-cutters.
 
Lesley Penné & Arvi SeppDe verbeelding van moeras en veen. Figuraties van de drassige bodem als topos van de gemeenschap in de hedendaagse Duitstalig-Belgische literatuur292-310
https://doi.org/10.5117/DMT2021.3/4.004.PENN
Abstract (EN)
The Representation of Marsh and Bog. Figurations of the Marshy Soil as a Topos of Community in Contemporary German-Language Belgian Literature Literature from border regions is often characterised by a specific transcultural poetics that reflects the liminal as discourse and experience. In contemporary German-language prose from East Belgium (‘Ostbelgien’), the topological representation of swamp and moor occupies an important place. We will show how swamp and moor express the complex definition of national and regional identity of the German-language area in Belgium and become relevant topoi in regard to cultural memory. Literature can be seen as a privileged medium of criticism for expressing the pressures of the unspoken and the closed and for initiating intra-community public discussions. Through a cultural-historical analysis of the various figurations of bog and moor, we will examine how the relationship between landscape and community is represented and conceived in contemporary Germanophone Belgian literature.
 
Maarten MeijerCharles Liernurs pneumatische riool en het besturen van bodems311-327
https://doi.org/10.5117/DMT2021.3/4.004.PENN
Abstract (EN)
Charles Liernur’s Pneumatic Sewage System and the Governing of SoilsThis article interrogates the epistemological conditions of Charles Liernur’s pneumatic sewage system in order to shed light on the changing relation between soils and Dutch society in the nineteenth century. The first section discusses the relation between hygienism, soil and sewage. The second section unearths how Liernur’s design related to the agricultural chemistry of Justus Liebig. Through the epistemologies and the mediating technologies that are operationalized by hygienists and chemists, soils are made governable. The final section of this article discusses the struggle to commercialise the urban waste collected by Liernur’s system, highlighting the difference between governable and governed soils.
 
Lieske Tibbe Aardappeleters. Een laag-bij-de gronds thema in de schilderkunst, 1885-1905328-352
https://doi.org/10.5117/DMT2021.3/4.006.TIBB
Abstract (EN)
Potato eaters. A mundane theme in painting, 1885-1905In late nineteenth-century Dutch art criticism, the topic of ‘poor people eating potatoes’ seems to have been a kind of litmus test for modern, Realist art. It was a sign of the dissolution of the hierachy of the genres, the decline of idealist painting with its elevated, literary themes, and it marked the emerging popularity of commonplace subjects without specific moral meaning attached to them. Likewise, painting of romantic, picturesque landscapes gave way to the more prosaic theme of hard work in the field. Poor farm workers at their shabby meal of potatoes, the fruits of their labour, were part of this subject matter. ‘Modern’ critics welcomed the shift in topics, ‘conservative’ ones fulminated against what they saw as a sign of decay. Catalogues of Exhibitions of Living Artists (Tentoonstellingen van Levende Meesters) and other expositions have been searched for paintings showing potato eaters, or related images like potato peeling, planting, digging, or potato still lifes. Quantitatively, these exhibitions did not justify the art critics’ rhetoric. Qualitatively, the critics’ aversion to the ‘potato eating’ theme was possibly related to its association with poverty and the imminent physical and moral decay of the lower class of the population. In modern realistic literature potato consumption also stood for degeneration. Partly outside the official art circuity, artists like Mauve, Witsen, Toorop, and especially Van Gogh showed potato production and consumption as ‘The Heroism of Daily Life’.
 
Michiel Purmer Op onvruchtbare bodem? Vroege natuurgebieden van Natuurmonumenten en het Nederlandse landschap353-376
https://doi.org/10.5117/DMT2021.3/4.007.PURM
Abstract (EN)
On barren soil? Early nature reserves of Natuurmonumenten and the Dutch landscapeIn 1905, Natuurmonumenten (Natural Monuments Society), a Dutch NGO for nature conservation, was founded. The society aimed to preserve some uncultivated lands, such as heathlands, fens, peat bogs but also forests, which were under threat of cultivation and reclamation. Natuurmonumenten managed to acquire a number of nature reserves in the years 1905-1940 for scientific, recreational and aesthetic reasons. In this article, this collection is analyzed and compared to the reserves of other Dutch nature conservation organizations in the same period. Although Natuurmonumenten acquired mainly barren soils, it turned out to be a fruitful start of a nature preservation organization that operated nationwide, and established a strong network within Dutch society.

De Moderne Tijd 1 (2022)

Jenna The‘Razende verkeersmonsters’: Strijd om de straat1-26
https://doi.org/10.5117/DMT2022.1.001.THE

Abstract (EN)
‘Racing traffic monsters’: Struggle on the street. Sensory and emotional negotiations in letters to the editor concerning cyclists and motorists in Amsterdam, 1880-1935 Between 1880 and 1935, the streets of Amsterdam transformed into increasingly busy traffic arteries. This article seeks to explain how this transformation came about by examining how the sensory and emotional experiences of Amsterdam’s street users changed with the arrival of the bicycle and the car. Through a sensory and emotional discourse analysis of letters to the editor of Amsterdam newspapers, it investigates which sensory and emotional stimuli road users experienced, how and why they developed sensory and emotional competences to deal with them, and why it took them so long to do so.
Laurien Hansma & Bart VerheijenOrangisme en Republikanisme27-50
https://doi.org/10.5117/DMT2022.1.002.HANS

Abstract (EN)
Orangism and Republicanism. Party quarrels after the Revolution, 1800-1806 This article describes the political debates that dominated the Batavian Republic after the Revolution. Following the failed Anglo-Russian invasion in 1799, a new constitution in 1801 and the Peace of Amiens in 1802 – in which Napoleon ended the revolutionary wars and created a new balance of power in Europe – a new form of Dutch national consciousness emerged. This led to a deepening of national cultural-historical awareness, and has been labelled by historians as a ‘nationalization of the revolution’. However, we argue that this process was not always based on political consensus or on an unequivocal apolitical ‘nationalization’. In fact, orangists and radical republicans continued to debate concepts like constitutionalism and sovereignty without showing much inclination towards reconciliation. This article focuses on these debates to show the different shades in organism and republicanism as well as their vividness, development and ongoing presence during the years 1800-1806.
Tim van der MeulenDe ironische generatie51-73
https://doi.org/10.5117/DMT2022.1.003.MEUL

Abstract (EN)
The ironical generation. An ideological positioning of the Kappeynian liberals (1860-1880) according to their ironical style Historians have struggled to pinpoint the Dutch Kappeynian liberal generation (1860-1880) ideologically. In this article I should like to show that the Kappeynians may be positioned as the ultimate examples of the doctrinal liberal ideals of Johan Thorbecke by assessing their ironical political style. I argue that their ironical style was part of a broad cultural ironical current in Dutch society in this period, which was expressed in the flourishing of debating clubs. This generation’s love for pure debate made them come closer to the doctrinal liberal ideal of parliamentary debate in the public interest than the actual doctrinal liberals themselves ever did.
Boekzaal der geleerde wereld (pp. 74-81)
  • Conrad Gietman, Yme Kuiper, Elyze Storms-Smeets en Leon Wessels (red.), De jacht. Een cultuurgeschiedenis van jager, dier en landschap. Hilversum: Verloren, 2021. (Lidewij Nissen)
  • Jan Brauer, Over de grens. De sociaal-politieke dynamiek in de Nederlands-Duitse grensregio’s, 1930-1940. Hilversum: Verloren, 2022; Dirkje Mulder-Boers, De grens getrokken. Noord-Nederlandse grensbewoners tussen 1914-1964. Assen: Van Gorcum, 2020. (Ben de Pater)
De Moderne Tijd 4 (2020) 3-4: ‘Crisis en catastrofe. De omgang met rampen in Nederland in de lange 19de eeuw’

De Moderne Tijd 4 (2020) 3-4: ‘Crisis en catastrofe. De omgang met rampen in Nederland in de lange 19de eeuw’

Lotte JensenDe opmars van Disaster Studies. Nieuwe perspectieven in het rampenonderzoek 147-164
Ruben RosDe opkomst van de ‘nationale ramp’. Een begripsgeschiedenis 165-187
Abstract (EN)
The rise of the ‘national disaster’. A conceptual history.In the early nineteenth century the concept of ‘national disaster’ makes its appearance in Dutch periodicals, marking a rich variety of events, developments and ideas as disastrous for the wellbeing and integrity of the nation. This article shows how the concept of ‘national disaster’ is rooted in changes in the meaning and use of the concept of ‘disaster’. Guided by a computational analysis of Dutch newspaper discourse in the period between 1750 and 1850, the article demonstrates how the concept of ‘disaster’ was increasingly used in political discourse from the early nineteenth century onwards. The politicization of the concept of disaster, and its application to ideas about the public sphere and national territory led to the emergence of the ‘national disaster’.
Erica BoersmaBovenregionale solidariteit bij stads- en dorpsrampen in de achttiende-eeuwse Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden. Het noodhulpbeleid van de hogere overheden 187-206
Abstract (EN)
Super-regional solidarity in city and village disasters in the eighteenth-century Dutch Republic.The historiography of disasters is quite unanimous that the higher authorities in the Dutch Republic had little interest in alleviating local distress. The explanation for this lack of supra-regional solidarity is usually found in the institutional inability of the administratively fragmented Dutch Republic: only after the emergence of a central (nation)state in 1795 did disaster relief become modernized. Most disaster research concerned floods; this article examines city and village disasters. Analysing the policies of the higher authorities on the structural aid to victims, it will show that supra-regional solidarity and aid was not only possible but also frequent in the Dutch Republic. Based on urban disaster policies, this article will suggest some alternative explanations for the lack of supra-regional support in flood disasters.
Arti PonsenHuiselijke relieken. De Leidse buskruitramp (1807) in openbare en particuliere collecties 207-233
Abstract (EN)
Homely relics. The Leiden gunpowder disaster (1807) in public and private collections.On January 12, 1807 part of Leiden’s inner city was devastated by the explosion of an inland boat loaded with gunpowder. About 160 people – mostly women and children – were killed, some 2000 injured. Survivors kept mementoes of their loved ones and of the event itself. Over time, many of these ‘secular relics’ were acquired by museums, others are still with the heirs of their original owners. The article discusses how the Dutch word ‘relic’ lost its religious connotation and how the private provenance of objects relating to the gunpowder disaster differs from the public veneration for national relics of Dutch history and art. The term ‘homely relics’ is proposed as a new subcategory of the ‘secular relics’ defined by Wim Vroom in 1997.
Marita MathijsenTen voordeele van …. Liefdadigheidsuitgaven in de negentiende eeuw 234-258
Abstract (EN)
In favor of…. Charity publications in the nineteenth century.In Dutch history, charity publications were almost entirely a 19th century phenomenon. In this article I provide an overview of this phenomenon. The first publication that I have been able to trace is from 1784, the most recent one from 1930. However there are some predecessors of charity publications. The few studies that have been published about charity literature emphasize their national message. Occasions for charity publications were many and varied. Even so, flood disasters prevail. The most varied genres could be employed for the purpose: theater plays, poetry, sermons, essays, etc. However, poems are in the majority, and it is they in the first place that become the object of criticism. From midcentury onward critical comments become ever fiercer, in particular concerning their quantity and their countless platitudes. What makes the phenomenon typically nineteenth century is the shared mentality behind it. To help out in the case of disasters or poverty was not yet a public matter but rested with privately undertaken initiatives.
Jan Wim BuismanOnweer. Een ramp, een straf of een subliem schouwspel? 259-269
Abstract (EN)
Thunderstorms. A disaster, a dvine punishment, or a sublime spectacle?.Thunderstorms often had disastrous consequences in former times, especially when gun powder magazines were struck. After the invention and implementation of Franklin’s lightning rod, the interpretation of these disasters as divine punishments seemed less obvious. Technology and science changed relations between the concepts of God, nature, and man. Very generally speaking, a religion of fear gave way to a religion of love. Nature was considered less a menace than a friend, a shift subtly foreshadowing the Romantic period. Put in more safe life conditions, man tended to hold more optimistic views of himself and dared to play artistically even with dangerous, sublime subjects such as thunderstorms.
Lotte JensenLiederen als nieuwsbrenger en troostverschaffer. Branden, scheepsrampen en grote internationale catastrofes, 1755-1918 270-293
Abstract (EN)
Singing about fires, shipwrecks and major international catastrophes between 1755 and 1918. Local, national and international solidarity.This article focuses on Dutch songs about three different kind of disasters in the period 1755-1918: fires (which occurred in Dutch villages and cities), ship wrecks (both in the Netherlands and abroad) and other foreign catastrophes, such as the earthquake on Martinique (1839) or the floods in Mexico (1888). This popular genre is an important source to understand how people coped with disasters in the past. They were not only used to spread the news, but also to make sense of the events by offering moral and religious lessons. This article investigates how these different types of disaster songs could shape a shared sense of community on the local, national and international level. While songs about fires were often directed at the local community, ballads about shipwrecks appealed to the imagined Dutch community. Songs about big disasters in foreign places, sometimes aimed at raising international solidarity, but they were more often used to strengthen communal feelings at the national level.
Fons MeijerVorst in het vizier. Nationalisme en de verbeelding van de Oranjes na rampen in de negentiende eeuw 294-320
Abstract (EN)
Looking at the monarch. Nationalism and the representation of Orange monarchs after disasters in the nineteenth century.The nineteenth-century Dutch monarchs from the House of Orange often played a proactive role in the aftermath of major catastrophes, such as storm surges, river floods and destructive explosions. Authors repeatedly praised their commitment afterwards and characterised them as symbols of the nation. In this article I demonstrate that the discourse through which monarchs were celebrated should quintessentially be understood as manifestations of nationalism, that is: these discourses cultivated a national sense of unity and thus popularised a the notion of the Netherlands as a national community. As it turns out, authors commonly cultivated a conservative notion of national community, concentrated around conformist concepts such as unity, hierarchy and moderation.
Ron BrandEmpathie of sensatiezucht? De scheepsramp van de ‘Berlin’ in 1907 en de nasleep ervan 321-336
Abstract (EN)
Empathy or sensationalism? The shipping disaster of the ‘Berlin’ in 1907 and its aftermath.In the early morning of February 21, 1907, during a fierce storm, the ferry ‘Berlin’ crashed on the pier of Hook van Holland. With 128 victims, it still is the largest maritime disaster off the Dutch coast in peacetime. Due to the enormous interest of the population, the media and the Dutch royal house, it became a major media disaster in Dutch history. How did that happen? The disaster occurred at a time when a new era was dawning by the dissemination of many new forms of media, such as film, photography and illustrated magazines. In addition, there was the special attention paid by Prince Hendrik, Queen Wilhelmina’s husband. His arrival in Hook van Holland was unprecedented, because he not only came to watch the rescue attempts, but also actively contributed to it. That made the disaster one with two faces; on the one hand, that of the lower class with the population of Hook of Holland and the brave saviors and, on the other hand, one of the upper class because of the attention paid to Prince Hendrik. All this ensured that the disaster was experienced intensely, more intensely than before.
Hans BeelenBezet door het ijs. De literaire verwerking van onfortuinlijke reizen ter walvisvangst in het rampjaar 1777/78 337-357
Abstract (EN)
Beset by ice. The Dutch literary resonance of unfortunate whaling voyages in the catastrophic year 1777/78.The Greenland whaling catastrophe of the year 1777 resulted in seventeen voyage descriptions, written in five languages over a period of 40 years. Travelogues in Dutch, German and Danish reflect the international character of the eighteenth-century whaling trade. As for the Dutch literary setting, there appear to be great differences in style and processing between printed journals written by surviving seamen and descriptions written by or in collaboration with more or less professional authors.
Alicia Schrikker en Sander TetterooDe koloniale ruimte herbezien. De politiek-culturele beleving van Indonesische natuurrampen in de 19e en vroege 20e eeuw oplossen 358-381
Abstract (EN)
The colonial space revisited. The cultural and political experience of Indonesian natural disasters in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.This contribution analyses the colonial space that encompassed The Netherlands and Indonesia through the lens of historical disasters. In the past as much as in the present, Indonesia’s geophysical circumstances made the region vulnerable to volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunami’s. During the nineteenth and early twentieth century such disasters confronted its victims, the other inhabitants of the archipelago and Dutch authorities with considerable challenges. Organizing relief and reconstructing the affected places and societies, prompted societal and governmental responses in colonial Indonesia as well as in The Netherlands. This article centres around two case studies: the eruption of Mount Awu on Sangihe Besar in 1856, and the earthquake that struck West Sumatra in 1926. We show that cultural and political interpretations of these disasters varied considerably between Dutch and Indonesian actors. By building on new insights from the fields of New Imperial History and Disaster Studies, we understand these divergences as the results of the differences in interests, worldviews and political realities faced by those who engaged with disasters in the Netherlands East Indies. On the one hand, Dutch actors tended to frame disasters as joint experiences that bound together motherland and its colony through charity and aid in a single humanitarian space. Yet their decidedly colonial lens led the Dutch to view disasters mainly through their own interests in the archipelago, thereby obscuring the multi-layered nature of local disaster responses. We therefore foreground local disaster responses to expose the limits of colonial disaster interpretations and thereby emphasise the fragmented nature of the colonial space.
Judith Bosnak en Rick Honings‘Behoed ons arme volk voor de vulkaan-poëten’. De literaire verwerking van de Krakatau-ramp van 1883 in Nederland en Indonesië 382
Abstract (EN)
‘Save our poor people from the vulcano poets’. The literary reception of the Krakatoa disaster of 1883 in the Netherlands and Indonesia.On August 27, 1883, the volcano Krakatau in the Dutch East Indies erupted and collapsed, causing the deaths of tens of thousands, mainly as a result of devastating tsunamis. The Krakatau eruption was one of the first disasters to take place beyond the Dutch boundaries that received so much attention in the Netherlands. Because the Indies were a Dutch colony, a response of the motherland was rather logical. In many places, charity activities were organized to raise money for the victims. This article focuses on the Dutch and Indonesian literary reactions on the Krakatau disaster. For this purpose, two scholars work together: one specialized in Dutch Literary Studies and the other one in Indonesian Languages and Cultures. In the first part of the article several Dutch charity publications are analysed; the second part focuses on Indonesian sources (in Javanese and Malay). How and to what extend did the reactions in the Netherlands and Indonesia differ?
De Moderne Tijd 4 (2020) 1-2: ‘Universitaire cultuur’

De Moderne Tijd 4 (2020) 1-2: ‘Universitaire cultuur’

Tom Sintobin en Leonieke VermeerOver universitaire culturen, toen en nu 2-17
Jaap GraveJohannes Franck. Een carrière in de marge 18-35
Abstract (EN)
Johannes Franck. A career in the margins.Johannes Franck (1854-1914) was the first professor extraordinarius (1886) and in 1912 a professor of Dutch and Low German in the German empire. In this article I describe his career largely until 1886 by embedding him within the scientific community of his time. Subsequently, I show how anti-Semitism prevented him from becoming a professor of German studies and discuss the policy of appointments in Prussia. To conclude, I argue that these aspects and the difference in scientific cultures between the Netherlands and the German Empire was partly responsible for the fact that he had a marginal position in between two scientific communities.
Christiaan EngbertsEen taalkundige als internationaal ondernemer. M.J. de Goeje en de Annalen van al-Tabari (1872-1901) 36-54
Abstract (EN)
A linguist as international entrepreneur. M. J. de Goeje and the Annals of al-Tabari.Modern-day scientists and humanities scholars are often expected to possess personality traits, skills, and virtues typically associated with entrepreneurs. These include (but are not limited to) a willingness to take risks, the ability to lead a diverse team of collaborators, and a flexible mindset. The roots of the ideal of the entrepreneurial scholar, however, are older. In this article, I investigate the realization of Michael Jan de Goeje’s al-Tabari edition in the last decades of the nineteenth century. To finance this ambitious endeavour and to successfully gather and manage a team of scholarly and non-scholarly collaborators, De Goeje needed to possess all the traits, skills, and virtues mentioned above. This case study demonstrates how an entrepreneurial spirit could be an asset for ambitious nineteenth-century scholars. At the same time, it illustrates one of the ways in which seemingly modern ideals of scholarship build on existing ones.
Ruben Mantels‘Ik leef hard en dubbel’. Het academisch leven van Paul Fredericq omstreeks 1900 55-69
Abstract (EN)
‘To live a double life’. The academic life of Paul Fredericq around 1900.In this article I analyse the diary of the historian Paul Fredericq following the concept of ‘academic life’, a term coined by Johan Huizinga and further explored by Klaas van Berkel. It calls for the study of the university that goes beyond the institutional, perceiving the university as a living community with multiple interactions with society. Personal documents such as the diary of Fredericq prove to be excellent sources to this informal, anthropological view on the university. The diary reveals how the ‘personal’ life and the ‘university’ life of Fredericq intertwined and how his research and teaching was mixed up with engagements in the Flemish Movement, liberal politics and cultural world. In his diary he spoke about a double life, namely this combination of being a scientist and being a public figure. To conclude, this article discusses Fredericq as a case of the responses and concerns of universities around 1900 to the growing extra-curricular activities of the academic community.
Petra van Langen‘Er zijn voor dit vak in Nederland geen maatschappelijke vooruitzichten’. Muziekwetenschap in Utrecht, 1930-1940 70-87
Abstract (EN)
‘There are no societal prospects for this study in the Netherlands’. Musicology in Utrecht, 1930-1940.Musicology became a fully-fledged academic study in the Netherlands in 1930 when both the Chair in Musicology and the Institute for Music History were founded at Utrecht University. Using sources such as archives, newspapers, personal memories of old studies in letters, and a talk on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the institute, this article describes the history of musicology Utrecht, its curriculum and what the first professor in musicology Albert Smijers expected of his students in the first decade of the institute’s existence.
Jamilla NotebaardDe kunst van het geprojecteerde beeld. De projectielantaarn als didactisch instrument in de kunsthistorische lessen van Willem Vogelsang (1875-1954) 88-107
Abstract (EN)
The art of the projected image. The optical lantern as a didactic instrument in the Art History lectures of Willem Vogelsang (1875-1954).The optical lantern was the central medium through which Art History professor Willem Vogelsang (1875-1954) taught his students ‘how to see’. As the first ordinarius in Art History in the Netherlands, Vogelsang focused on creating the right educational setting to turn his students into professional art historians. In his lectures the optical lantern and its projected images functioned as a didactic instrument to make his students (visually) understand compositional and stylistic differences and similarities within and between artworks. The lantern allowed Vogelsang to visually open up the world of art history to a whole new generation of art historians.
Dirk AlkemadePak van SjaalmanPatriots oorlogstoerisme. Het reisverslag van Jan van Vleuten naar de frontsteden Utrecht en Woerden in de zomer van 1787 108-120
Boekzaal der geleerde wereld 121-143
  • Pieter Huistra, Bouwmeesters, zedenmeesters. Geschiedbeoefening in Nederland tussen 1830 en 1870. Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2019. (Christiaan Engberts)
  • Beatrice de Graaf, Tegen de terreur. Hoe Europa veilig werd na Napoleon. Amsterdam: Prometheus, 2018. Christine Haynes, Our friends the enemies: The occupation of France after Napoleon. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018. (Matthijs Lok)
  • Laurien Hansma, Oranjedriften. Orangisme in de Nederlandse politieke cultuur, 1780-1913. Hilversum: Verloren, 2019. (Lauren Lauret)
  • Xosé M. Nuñez Seixas en Eric Storm, red., Regionalism and modern Europe. Identity construction and movements from 1890 to the present day. Londen: Bloomsbury, 2019. (Marguérite Corporaal)
  • Leo van Bergen, Pro Patria et Patienti. De Nederlandse militaire geneeskunde 1795-1950. Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2019. (Tom Duurland)
  • Len de Klerk, Frédéric en Antoine Plate. Rotterdamse kooplieden, reders en bestuurders, 1802-1927. Hilversum: Verloren, 2019. (Ben de Pater)
  • Ron Dirven, Monique Rakhorst en Helma van der Horst, De schilders van Dongen; Ulbe Anema, Jeroen Kapelle en Dick van Veelen, De schilders van de Veluwezoom; Annemiek Rens, Barbizon van het Noorden. De ontdekking van het Drentse landschap, 1850-1950. Zwolle: WBOOKS, 2019. (Wiepke Loos)
De Moderne Tijd 2019, nr. 4

De Moderne Tijd 3 (2019) 4

Rick Honings‘Der keerlen God’ op het toneel. Willem Bilderdijks treurspel Floris de Vijfde (1808) 298-323

Abstract (EN)
The ‘God of the Peasants’ on stage. Willem Bilderdijk’s tragedy Floris de Vijfde (1808).This article focuses on Willem Bilderdijk’s play Floris de Vijfde (Floris V), which he wrote in 1808 for King Louis Napoleon. This play is studied form different perspectives in order to get a complete picture of the content, context, function and reception of this work. It offers new biographical information on Bilderdijk’s life in the context of the Kingdom of Holland and focuses on Bilderdijk’s ideas on theatre in relation to Floris de Vijfde and on his ideas about national history. Furthermore, attention is paid to the political context in which the piece was written and to the political function that it fulfilled. Finally, this article presents an extensive overview of the reception and nachleben of the play in the second half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century.
Ron de JongHooggespannen verwachtingen. Verkiezingen en de grondwetsherziening van 1848 324-337

Abstract (EN)
Great expectations. Elections and the consitutional reform of 1848.This article explores the causes of the low turnout at the Dutch elections in the years following the constitutional reform of 1848. The liberal reformers had hoped for an increased participation of Dutch voters after the introduction of direct suffrage, but were soon to be disappointed when after a promising start, the turnout dropped well below fifty percent. Drawing on Pierre Rosanvallon’s notions on political citizenship, this article tries to explain the low turnout.
Jan Drentje en Remieg AertsDiscussie 336-350

  • Biografie of mythologie? Een repliek (Remieg Aerts)
  • Thorbeckes wil en de wil van de geschiedenis (Jan Drentje)
Boekzaal der geleerde wereld 360-368

  • Nel de Mûelenaere, Belgen, zijt gij ten strijde gereed? Militarising in een neutrale natie, 1890-1914. Leuven: Universitaire Pers Leuven, 2019. (Samuël Kruizinga)
  • Evelien Jonckheere, Aandacht! Aandacht! Aandacht en verstrooiing in het Gentse Grand Théâtre, Café-concert en Variététheater,
    1880-1914
    . Leuven University Press: Leuven, 2017. (Veerle Driessen)
  • Henk te Velde en Maartje Janse, red., Organizing democracy. Reflections on the rise of political organization in the nineteenth century. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. (Adriejan van Veen)
  • Angelie Sens, De kolonieman. Johannes van den Bosch (1780-1844). Volksverheffer in naam van de koning. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2019. (Rowin Jansen)
De Moderne Tijd 2019, nr. 3: Migratie en identiteit

De Moderne Tijd 3 (2019) 3: ‘Migratie en identiteit’

Anna RademakersJacobus Josephus Eeckhout. Wederwaardigheden van een Belgische schilder in Den Haag (1831-1844) 190-210

Abstract (EN)
Jacobus Josephus Eeckhout. A Belgian painter’s times in The Hague (1831-1844).In 1831, shortly after the outbreak of the Belgian Revolution, the Belgian painter Jacob Joseph Eeckhout moved from Brussels to The Hague. As a supporter of King Willem I, he no longer felt at ease in his homeland. Eeckhout remained in the Netherlands until 1843 and played an important role in the cultural life of The Hague. This article analyzes the The Hague episode in Eeckhout’s life in the light of the political developments of that time. To what extent did notions of nationality and national identity play a role in his artistic views and career?
Gertjan BroekEmigranten rond het Achterhuis van Anne Frank 211-226

Abstract (EN)
Migrants around Anne Frank’s Achterhuis.The story of Anne Frank, her family and her companions, hiding from persecution by the Nazi regime, is a well-known and – at a first glance – very Dutch one. The main divide between those in hiding and their helpers was that between being Jewish and being non-Jewish, which in those precarious times was of course the essential ‘divide’ imposed on the people of occupied Europe. But a closer look at the group of people around Anne seen from the perspective of migration and (national) identity produces different dividing lines and insights. Their life stories, converging in that one Amsterdam warehouse, reflect many aspects of early twentieth-century European history.
Caroline DrieënhuizenLeven(s) met objecten. De Europese elite van koloniaal Indonesië, haar verzamelingen en identificatie rond 1900 227-248

Abstract (EN)
Living with objects. The European elite of colonial Indonesia, its collections and identification around
1900.
Many upper-class migrants from, and to, Dutch colonial Indonesia – often travelling back and forth – collected objects. By analysing the practice of collecting and the meaning these people ascribed to those artefacts, I will provide insight into the way personal, and eventually even collective, identities were formed. The manner in which objects were collected and displayed not only reflected the self-image of their owners in colonial and Dutch society, but may also have been active influences in those processes of (self)identification. The collection of objects, and the meaning ascribed to them, reflected the unequal power relations within colonial society, and simultaneously, was possible a strategy for marginalised people (such as European women) to liberate themselves from social inequality.
Marguérite Corporaal en Tom Sintobin‘Gemeen Volk’. Zigeuners in Europese streekliteratuur 249-285

Abstract (EN)
‘Common People’. Gypsies in European regional fiction.Regional fiction is a genre in which the tension between local and national cultures tends to play an important role. This article explores the representation of a category of characters that seems to escape that binary opposition: gipsies. More specifically, it analyzes six case studies from regional literature produced in Ireland and the Low Countries to find out whether we can speak of a transnational trope. Although the representation of gipsies in the case studies are different in several respects, there are also striking similarities. The most important one is that the gipsies are not just mere outsiders posing a threat to the regional community. Rather, paradoxically, they constitute a model for that local community regarding the preservation and regeneration of its own cultural values.
Boekzaal der geleerde wereld 286-296

  • Eveline Koolhaas-Grosfeld en Marij Leenders, Tussen politiek en publiek. Politieke prenten uit een opstandige tijd 1880-1919. Schiedam: Scriptum, 2019. (Paul Reef)
  • Fleur de Beaufort en Patrick van Schie, De liberale strijd voor vrouwenkiesrecht. Amsterdam: Boom, 2019. Mineke Bosch, Strijd! De vrouwenkiesrechtbeweging in Nederland, 1882-1922. Hilversum: Verloren, 2019. (Ulla Jansz)
  • Martin P. Weiss, Showcasing science. A history of Teylers Museum in the nineteenth century. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019. (Lieske Tibbe)
De Moderne Tijd 2019, nr. 2

De Moderne Tijd 3 (2019) 2

Paul ReefKoninklijke inhuldiging ‘nieuwe stijl’? Machtsrepresentatie en betekenisverlening bij de inhuldiging van Willem III na de grondwetswijziging van 1848 98-127

Abstract (EN)
The royal inauguration’s ‘new clothes’? The representation and reception of power at the inauguration of William III after the constitutional reform of 1848.In recent years, historians have shown how royal rituals were a major site for legitimating and contesting power in Europe’s long nineteenth century. This article calls for attention to cases with a more ambiguous political meaning and function. It analyses how the Dutch King William III’s 1849 inauguration ceremony represented the new political order following the far-reaching 1848 constitutional reform. The ceremony was planned surprisingly hastily without much attention to political events and lacked symbolical value, especially compared to other countries. Although the tradition of inauguration was organized and perceived as a ritual of political transition, it ultimately had little long-term political impact.
Tessel X. DekkerDriedimensionaal nieuws. Het Nederlandsch Panopticum als concurrent van het geïllustreerde dagblad, 1882-1919 128-152

Abstract (EN)
Three-dimensional news. The Amsterdam wax museum as a competitor of the illustrated newspaper, 1882-1919.The nineteenth-century wax museum can be viewed as a contemporary mass medium that showed people scenes from the news. The Nederlandsch Panopticum was the first of its kind in the Netherlands, located in Amsterdam between 1882 and 1919. As an informative visual medium, the Panopticum had to compete with other media, like the illustrated newspaper, for the attention of the public. At the same time, the wax museum also depended on photographs published in these same papers: wax models were often, and in the course of time almost exclusively, modelled after photos. This reciprocal relationship can be seen as an example of ‘intermediality’. In the end, the wax museum lost ground, foremost, to the new mass medium of the time, cinema, which took over both as an urban attraction and as a popular visual medium.
Erica van BovenEen populaire aristocraat. Arthur van Schendel en het lezerspubliek in de jaren dertig 153-169

Abstract (EN)
A popular aristocrat. Arthur van Schendel and the reading public in the 1930s.In Dutch literary culture of the first half of the twentieth century, intellectual elite and general public were not only separate, but even opposite categories. ‘Highbrow’ and ‘middlebrow’ held polarized positions in matters of cultural hierarchy and literary taste, which led to fierce debates. Strikingly, one author was able to bridge this gap: Arthur van Schendel (1874-1946) appealed both ends of the spectrum and thus had an exceptional, connecting role in the cultural divides of the Interbelluminterwar period. This article analyses the responses to Van Schendels so-called ‘Dutch novels’ in order to find out what made Arthur van Schendel highly valued by leading professionals as well as loved by the reading audience.
Boekzaal der geleerde wereld 170-183

  • Rob Delvigne en Jan Jaap Heij, In de schaduw van Cuypers. Georg Sturm (1855-1923), monumentaal decorateur. Amersfoort: Bekking & Blitz, 2017. (Lieske Tibbe)
  • Alex Rutten, De publieke man. Dr. P.H. Ritter Jr. als cultuurbemiddelaar in het interbellum. Hilversum: Verloren, 2018. (Ward de Kock)
  • Femke Knoop, Hirsch & Cie Amsterdam (1882-1976). Haute couture op het Leidseplein. Hilversum: Verloren, 2018. (Clé Lesger)
  • Robert-Jan Wille, Mannen van de microscoop. De laboratoriumbiologie op veldtocht in Nederland en Indië, 1840-1910. Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2019. (Wessel de Cock)
  • Rob Hartmans, De revolutie die niet doorging. De tragedie van Troelstra, november 1918. Utrecht: Omniboek, 2018. (Gaard Kets)
De Moderne Tijd 2019, nr. 1

De Moderne Tijd 3 (2019) 1

Wouter Egelmeers en Joris VandendriesscheDe redacteur en het buitenland. ‘Hergebruik’ van buitenlandse historische teksten in Nederlandse periodieken, 1780-1860 2-27

Abstract (EN)
Importing texts from abroad. Editors’ reuse of foreign historical texts in Dutch periodicals, 1780-1860.This article explores the ways in which the editors of five Dutch history journals and three magazines for general circulation copied historical texts from abroad, between 1780 and 1860. By comparing original texts with reprinted versions, we show that the editors’ work involved not only ‘passive’ duplication (reprinting in full), but also more active forms of intervention, from the selection of text fragments to their translation, modification or critical review. These varied editorial practices point to a broader creative process through which historical knowledge was tailored to an emerging and nationally-oriented academic audience. Editors here assumed the role of mediators, gatekeepers even in the sense that their judgment determined the very choice of texts. At a time when the study of history was evolving at both the national and international level, and when the relationship between actors making up the disciplinary field was also in flux, editors thus became influential figures.
Willemijn RubergExpertise in gerechtsdossiers. De praktijk van de forensische psychiatrie in Nederland, 1811-1930 28-50

Abstract (EN)
Expertise in case files. The practice of forensic psychiatry in the Netherlands, 1811-1930.Research on the history of Dutch forensic psychiatry has hardly taken into account how psychiatrists functioned in practice. This article, based on 485 court cases of (child)murder, rape and arson, provides an inventory of the role of psychiatrists in the courtroom. It distinguishes between three regimes of knowledge: a first regime in the first half of the nineteenth century, when there is much overlap between lay and expert knowledge on the mind; the second from ca. 1880, when increasingly reference is made to scientific concepts and reports became standardized; and a third regime around 1920, when an emphasis on scientific methods found its way into the reports. An analysis of verdicts shows that the judges often agreed with the expert reports. The relationship between the judges and psychiatrists can be qualified as one in which judges accorded room for experts, who, however, remained subservient to the judiciary.
Koos-jan de JagerWare godsdienstzin en strenge moraliteit 51-75

Abstract (EN)
True religion and stern morality. A thematic-historical analysis of the sermons of Chief Rabbi Tobias Tal (1847-1898).The process of integration of the Jewish community in modern Dutch society was accompanied by a change of Jewish homiletics in both content and form. This article presents the case of the Dutch Chief Rabbi Tobias Tal with the aim of showing how Jewish homiletics changed in the second half of the nineteenthcentury. Based on an analysis of his sermons, this article argues that Tal successfullycombined liberal-protestant ideals and homiletical forms with old Jewish thoughts.
Willem BantNederland door Colombiaanse ogen. De roman Una holandesa en América (1888) van Soledad Acosta de Samper 76-95

Abstract (EN)
The Netherlands through Colombian eyes. The novel Una holandesa en América (1888) by Soledad Acosta de Samper.In 1888, Soledad Acosta de Samper, a well-known writer and journalist in Colombia’s capital Bogotá, published the novel Una holandesa en América. This article presents an imagological analysis of how the Dutch and the Netherlands are representedin her novel, and discusses Acosta’s possible intentions in writing thisbook as well as her reasons for choosing a Dutch protagonist. It argues that the images of the Dutch were meant to serve as examples for Acosta’s Colombian audiencein a period in which the country was still engaged in nation building after gaining independence from Spain in 1819.
De Moderne Tijd 2019-34 Mens en dier

De Moderne Tijd 2 (2018) 3-4: ‘Mens en dier’

Rick HoningsVriendelijke huisgezellen of ‘ingevleeschde’ duivels. Willem Bilderdijk en de dieren 197-225

Abstract (EN)
Friendly companions or ‘corroded’ devils. Willem Bilderdijk and the animals.In 1817 the Dutch poet Willem Bilderdijk published De dieren (The animals), one of his shortest but less studied didactic poems. In this work he presented a curious view on animals and their origins. With this article, I would like to contribute to the field of animal studies, by analyzing Bilderdijk’s ideas on and his contacts with animals. The first part of this article presents a biographical overview of Bilderdijk’s association with animals on the basis of available (auto)biographical texts. In the second part his didactic poem is analysed. What parallels can be drawn between both perspectives?
Lucie SedláčkováOok de vis moet duur betalen. De representatie van dieren en het vegetarisme in het werk van Herman Heijermans en andere sociaal bewogen auteurs van het fin de siècle 226-247

Abstract (EN)
The fish have to pay dearly as well. The representations of animals and vegetarianism in the works of Herman Heijermans
and other socially engaged writers of the fin de siècle.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the perception of animals changed significantly due to the theory of evolution and other new ideas, which also affected a number of Dutch socialist-leaning writers. Utilizing the framework of literary animal studies, this article investigates how animals were represented in their works. Most of the examined writers present animals as sentient beings, which is also reflected by their speaking out in favour of vegetarianism. Herman Heijermans takes a more ambivalent position: some of his writings show the possibility of animal agency, whereas in others, animals are subordinate to people’s needs and are objectified.
Hanneke RonnesDe subversieve huiskat. Kunstenaars en poezen in Nederland, 1885-1910 248-266

Abstract (EN)
A new kind of love for the cat. The subversive, domestic cat of Dutch artists, 1885-1910.The nineteenth century is often hallmarked as the epoch of the birth of the pet. The life of cats in the Netherlands improved especially thanks to two groups: a bourgeois and noble elite embracing the cat in imitation of English peers, and (poor) artists who looked particularly towards France where authors and painters such as Baudelaire and Manet had adopted the cat as their alter ego. In this article Dutch artists (especially the Tachtigers or Movement of Eighty) take centre stage. They did not uncritically copy French examples but modelled their own cats, both visually and literarily.
Ilja NieuwlandDe ambiguïteit van de dinosaurus. Zeeslangen, Iguanodons en waarom Brussel geen Diplodocus kreeg 287-311

Abstract (EN)
The Dinosaur’s ambiguity. Sea snakes, Iguanodons and why Brussels did not receive its Diplodocus.In the opening years of the twentieth century, the Scottish magnate Andrew Carnegie used the donation of plaster casts of the dinosaur Diplodocus as a means to influence European heads of state in favor of his scheme for conflict arbitration. This contribution examines the way in which these casts became a border object between the worlds of science, high and popular culture, and politics, by looking at the history of the public assimilation of dinosaurs. Specifically, it focuses on an earlier example of such donations: the Iguanodons which were given away by the Belgian state and the Belgian king Leopold ii personally, after 1890. These developments collided when Carnegie’s donation of a Diplodocus was cancelled after Leopold’s reputation began to suffer when details of the Congolese genocide became known to the public. This illustrates that for Carnegie, despite the cultural and scientific appeal of his donations, politics remained at the center of his campaign.
Irena KozmanováKeizer Wilhelm II als wapen in debatten over hondenfokkerij. Voor de bureaucratie werd de keizer irrelevant 312-325

Abstract (EN)
Emperor Wilhelm II as dog owner. Instrumentalisation of the monarchy in dog breeding debates.Nineteenth century European rulers could not consider hunting or dog ownership a private choice. Regarding the role dog breeding had started to play in society, every decision made by the vips of that time was perceived as a political indication; the contemporary public discussed the choices and commented on them. Various groups and individuals even used them as argument to support their own claims. The article shows on two cases – firstly, the exploitation of Wilhelm II to the advantage of the dachshund lobby and secondly, a conflict between a hunting dog club and the ministry of agriculture – that the Emperor, long before 1918, was losing credit among influential parts of the society, based on new views on nature and animal treatment. Wilhelm’s hunting behaviour was perceived as obsolete and neither the use of the imperial authority as argument aimed at substantiating one’s claims could persuade the state bureaucracy that already oriented itself on scientific and transparent dog breeding policy.
Peter KoolmeesHet doden van dieren in Nederland, 1860-1940. Een onbehaaglijk onderdeel van de mens-dierrelatie 326-347

Abstract (EN)
The killing of animals in the Netherlands, 1860-1940. A inconvenient part of the human-animal relationship.This article explores the rise of the animal protection movement and its propaganda to improve the humane killing of animals in the Netherlands. From 1880 onwards, veterinarians became advisors of animal protection societies because they were considered objective judges with scientific knowledge of animal physiology. Between 1880 and 1922 cruelty to animals decreased significantly by the development and introduction of asphyxiation cages for pets and stunning equipment for slaughter animals. Although criticized, ritual slaughter remained legal. The debate on killing methods for animals with the tensions between scientific knowledge and emotions has been with us for one and a half centuries and continues today.
Boekzaal der geleerde wereld 348-352

  • Dik van der Meulen, Jac. P. Thijsse. Natuurbeschermer en schrijver. Zeist: KNNV; Amsterdam: Heimans en Thijsse Stichting, 2018. (Marga Coesèl)
  • Catherine Wijnands, Thuis in elke tijd. Het leven van Kate Kolff (1885-1974). Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2018. (Marieke Dwarswaard)
De Moderne Tijd 2018, nr. 2

De Moderne Tijd 2 (2018) 2

Marianne BraunVrouwen en vrede, mannen en oorlog? Wilhelmina Druckers feminisme in de Eerste Wereldoorlog
Marianne Braun 98-114

Abstract (EN)
Women and peace, men and war? Dutch radical feminist Wilhelmina Drucker’s take on feminism during the Great War.This article explores the connection between feminism and the fight for peace during the First World War. Although the Netherlands were officially neutral, the horrors of the battlefield, the position of women and the measures that needed to be taken were at the centre of a fierce political debate. I focus in particular on the special contribution to the Peace Movement by secularist feminist and leading figure of the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century feminist movement Wilhelmina Drucker (1847-1925). Her criticism of the war spared neither men nor women and comprised three dimensions: an antimilitarist dimension, a legal democratic one, and an ultra-radical combination of feminism and Neo-Malthusianism.
Corné SmitVoor de vorst, maar in naam van het volk. Hoe het conservatieve Dagblad van Zuidholland en ’s-Gravenhage populistische trekjes kreeg 115-134

Abstract (EN)
For the King, but in the name of the people. How the conservative Dagblad van Zuidholland en ’s-Gravenhage developed its
populist traits.
The Dutch conservatives in the nineteenth century used the concept of volkskoning (the people’s king) to legitimize their defence of royal prerogatives against the increasing power of parliament. This concept emphasized the bond between monarch and people and depicted the political elite as a threat to both. Based on a study of the conservative newspaper Dagblad van Zuidholland en ’s-Gravenhage, this article argues that the idea of the volkskoning was developed into a more populist argument in which the people became the de facto sovereign who had to be protected against the rotten elite in parliament.
Louis VeenPiet Mondriaan over neoplastisch kunstonderwijs 135-160

Abstract (EN)
Piet Mondrian on neoplastic art education.Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) was not only a painter, but also a prolific writer. He wrote more than a hundred essays in Dutch, French, and English on the subject of art and society. In three unfinished essays, Mondrian sketches a different art education than was customary at the fine art academies during the interwar period. He describes an education that does not focus on creating discrete art objects, but on designing the entire daily environment. Mondrian’s intention was that graduates who had finished the training would give the society a harmoniously balanced structure, which would ultimately lead to more harmony and peace in man. He believed that a ‘Paradise on Earth’ would be no longer be a dream when all aspects of life were designed according to the neoplastic principles. In order to achieve this, students of Mondrian’s art education had to study the fundamental principles on which Mondrian based his neoplastic paintings. The present article investigates the principles of neoplastic composition as laid out in these three texts, which can help our understanding of the thought and method behind Mondrian’s Neo-Plasticism.
Hanneke Nap, Iris van der Zande, Eelco Kramer, Gonda van den HeuvelOnder de huid van Zwarte Piet. (Schrik)figuren rond het Sint-Nicolaasfeest in de negentiende eeuw 161-187

Abstract (EN)
Under Black Pete’s skin. Dark figures around the nineteenth-century Feast of Saint Nicholas.The Dutch debate surrounding Black Pete (Zwarte Piet) has become deeply polarized. Proponents as well as opponents of the black assistant of Saint Nicholas base their opinions on his assumed origin. While supporters of Black Pete believe that he originated from pre-Christian traditions, the anti-Black Pete camp is convinced he can be traced back to a world of slavery and racism. This article shows that the present figure of Black Pete is a nineteenth-century amalgamation of different types and traditions. This means that Black Pete can not be reduced to a single, unambiguous meaning. Therefore, the answer to the question concerning his identity and his alleged racist character must be found in his reception rather than his origin.
Boekzaal der geleerde wereld 188-192

  • Richard Bionda, Matthijs Maris. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 2017. Erma Hermens, Laura Raven en Suzanne Veldink, Matthijs Maris at Work. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 2017. (Wiepke Loos)