The five review articles included in this volume were produced by the Dutch History Seminar of the University of London with the assistance of several Belgian and Dutch historians. They first appeared in the volumes VI-X of the Acta Historiae Neerlandicae (in 1978 renamed The Low Countries History Yearbook), a periodical published by the Dutch Historical Society with the objective of bringing new pUblications on the history of the Low Countries in the Dutch language to the attention of English-speaking historians. These articles have been republished and provided with indexes in the hope that in this form they will also prove to be useful to students of Belgian and Dutch history who have not been regular readers of the Acta. Should this pUblication be favourably received a subsequent volume covering the years 1976-1981 may be issued. THE EDITORS VII Survey of recent Dutch Historiography ALICE C. CARTER, Editor INTRODUCTION This bibliographical article has been put together by members of the Dutch history seminar held at London University's Institute of Historical Research. The article is intended for non-Dutch-reading scholars and indeed all who are interested in Netherlands history. An attempt has been made, and will continue to be made, to survey important works published in the year previous to that in which the article is drawn up. This year we have concerned ourselves with books or in the earlier part of 1971.

The history of the smaller European countries is rather neglected in the teaching of European history at university level. We are therefore pleased to announce the publication of the first comprehensive history of the Low Countries - in English - from Roman Times to the present. Remaining politically and culturally fragmented, with its inhabitants speaking Dutch, French, Frisian, and German, the Low Countries offer a fascinating picture of European history en miniature. For historical reasons, parts of northern France and western Germany also have to be included in the "Low Countries," a term that must remain both broad and fluid, a convenient label for a region which has seldom, if ever, composed a unified whole. In earlier ages it as even more difficult to the region set parameters, again reflecting Europe as a whole, when tribes and kingdoms stretched across expanses not limited to the present states of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Nevertheless, its parts did demonstrate many common traits and similar developments that differentiated them from surrounding countries and lent them a distinct character. Internationally, the region often served both as a mediator for and a buffer to the surrounding great powers, France, Britain, and Germany; an important role still played today as Belgium and the Netherlands have increasingly become involved in the broader process of European integration, in which they often share the same interest and follow parallel policies. This highly illustrated volume serves as an ideal introduction to the rich history of the Low Countries for students and the generally interested reader alike.

A comprehensive dissection of the making of urban society in the Low Countries during the middle ages and the sixteenth century.

This edited collection explores the ways in which our understanding of the past in Dutch history and culture can be rethought to consider not only how it forms part of the present but how it can relate also to the future. Divided into three parts – The Uses of Myth and History, The Past as Illumination of Cultural Context, and Historiography in Focus – this book seeks to demonstrate the importance of the past by investigating the transmission of culture and its transformations. It reflects on the history of historiography and looks critically at the products of the historiographic process, such as Dutch and Afrikaans literary history. The chapters cover a range of disciplines and approaches: some authors offer a broad view of a particular period, such as Jonathan Israel's contribution on myth and history in the ideological politics of the Dutch Golden Age, while others zoom in on specific genres, texts or historical moments, such as Benjamin Schmidt’s study of the doolhof, a word that today means ‘labyrinth’ but once described a 17th-century educational amusement park. This volume, enlightening and home to multiple paths of enquiry leading in different directions, is an excellent example of what a past-present doolhof might look like.