The essays in this book offer a rich sampling of current scholarship on New Netherland and Dutch colonization in North America. The Introduction explains why the Dutch moment in American history has been overlooked or trivialized and calls attention to signs of the emergence of a new narrative of American beginnings that gives due weight to the imprint of Dutch settlement in America. The essays are organized around six major themes: New Netherland and Historical Memory, New Netherland in the Atlantic World, The Political Economy of New Netherland, New Netherland’s Directors: A New Look, Family Research as a key to New Netherland’s History, and Writing the History of New Netherland in the Twenty-first Century. This volume holds great interest for historians of early America and of Dutch colonization. Contributors include: Willem Frijhoff, Charles Th. Gehring, Joyce D. Goodfriend, Firth Haring Fabend, Jaap Jacobs, Wim Klooster, Harry Macy, Jr., Dennis J. Maika, Simon Middleton, Bertrand Van Ruymbeke, Annette Stott, David William Voorhees, and Richard Waldron.

"The story of New Netherland is told in a highly readable fashion suitable for anyone unfamiliar with this important chapter in U.S. colonial history. From the exploration of Henry Hudson in 1609 to the final transfer of the Dutch colony to the English in 1674,this book introduces key aspects of New Netherland: the multicultural makeup of the population, the privatization of colonization, the ability to survive with meager means against overwhelming odds, and the transfer of distinctive Dutch traits, such as toleration, free trade, and social mobility, all of which persisted long after New Netherland became New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and parts of Connecticut and Pennsylvania. New Netherland in a Nutshell will satisfy the questions: who were the Dutch, why did they come here, and what did they do once they got here?" -- Publisher's description.

This volume investigates the place of Dutch history and Dutch-derived culture in America over the last four centuries. It considers how the Dutch have fared in America, and it explores how American conceptions of Dutchness have developed, from Henry Hudson's historic voyage to Manhattan in 1609 through the rise of Dutch design at the turn of the twenty-first century. Essays probe a rich array of topics: Dutch themes in American arts and letters; the place of Dutch paintings in American collections; shifting American interests in Dutch art, literature, and architecture; the experience of Dutch immigrants in America; and the Dutch Reformed Church in America. "Going Dutch" presents a much needed overview of the Dutch-American experience from its beginnings to the present. Contributors include: Julie Berger Hochstrasser, Willem Frijhoff, Joyce D. Goodfriend, Hans Krabbendam, Joseph Manca, Nancy T. Minty, Mark A. Peterson, Christopher Pierce, Judith Richardson, Louisa Wood Ruby, Benjamin Schmidt, Robert Schoone-Jongen, Annette Stott, Tity de Vries, and Dennis P. Weller.

... Author Peter Douglas enlightens us about the New Netherland Project and the light it has shed on how America's Dutch heritage shaped the earliest years of our nation's history.