"Jonathan Israel's 1,231-page blockbuster... offers a comprehensive, integrated account of the northern part of the Netherlands over almost 350 years...[it] represents the fruit of 12 years of research, contemplation and writing, and brims over with interesting detail."--The New York Times Book Review "Israel performs the great service of charting a path through this literature and presents a coherent and comprehensive picture of the Dutch Republic.... Comprehensive in scope and yet so clearly and carefully written that it could serve as a textbook for graduate history courses. Because it is so thoroughly researched and up-to-date, it is also the kind of indispensable handbook that deserves a place on every early modernist's bookshelf."--American Historical Review.
