Amsterdam

Rating:
Summary: Very readable
Review: I loved this book. After visiting and falling in love with Amsterdam, I sought to learn more of its history. This book does a great job of putting you inside the city throughout its long and remarkable history. From the first settlements at the edge of the wetlands to its zenith as the world's foremost trading power to modern times, author Mak makes the history come alive by focusing on individuals as well as the average Amsterdamer. Blom's translation is impeccable (I often find that Dutch translates very well to English). Highly recommended to the discerning traveler or the merely curious.

Rating:
Summary: Amsterdam by Geert Mak
Review: I read this book in Dutch, and lived in Amsterdam for many years. Being an (ex)Amsterdammer, I guess there are many things you take for granted, and I certainly subscribe to Mak's explanation that one of them is "being proud of not being proud".
However, having lived away from Amsterdam for so many years now, this book has thoroughly re-established my (not so proud) appreciation for Amsterdam! My next trip to my beloved home town will, thanks to Geert Mak, be an altogether different one.

Rating:
Summary: Very readable
Review: This was a very readable account of Amsterdams history. Of course it would take a five volume history to do full justice to the city but this was admirable in its ability to cover high points while not being a dull textbook account.The prose was very good and not dry at all.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, Rich, Informative
Review: _Een kleine geschiedenis van Amsterdam_ (the Dutch Title of this book) has been on my friends' must-read lists since it was released in Dutch in 1995. I've finally gotten around now to reading it, and now I'm only sorry that I hadn't read it earlier.

Mak is very good at choosing periods from the life of the city to highlight and also choosing the anecdotes that make that period more real. Whether his focus is on the portrait of Gerrit Janszoon Peggedochter, or the reaction of modern Amsterdammers to the marriage of (then Princess, now Queen) Beatrix, the stories are always fascinating. I liked how he made an effort to tie Amsterdam of the past to its current incarnation and after living there for five years I found myself nodding and smiling at many of Mak's observations.

Mercifully, he doesn't overly focus on tulipmania-- that's been covered more than well enough elsewhere.

I haven't read the Dutch version, only the English, and I didn't stumble over the translation. I do know that people who've read both complain about the English, but unless you're planning a comparative study I think Blom's translation should suffice.