history
Newcomers to the North
Our Colonial Legacy
Migration, the Other Way Around
New Holocaust Museum Shows The Persecution Of Jews In Its True Colours
What can the National Holocaust Museum say that has not been said before by dozens of other Dutch museums and memorial sites concerning the history and the persecution of the Jews?
From Harlotry To Sex Work: How The Low Countries Deal With Prostitution
Today, prostitution has been legalised in the Netherlands and decriminalised in Belgium, but the normalisation of ‘sex for money’ is far from a reality.
History of the Netherlands
Sex In The Cinema? Censorship In The Netherlands, Deleted Scenes In Belgium
The Netherlands was long considered more progressive in cinema than Belgium. Surprisingly enough, film censorship was more robust in the Netherlands than in Belgium.
The Ambiguous View Of Sexuality In The Low Countries
Since 1945 The Netherlands and Belgium have often been frontrunners on the world stage when it comes to sexuality. But a certain sense of unease has always lingered and seems to be growing these days.
Newcomers to the North
Mass Murder On Manhattan: The Bloody Legacy Of Dutch Settlers
On 25 February 1643, two massacres on and around Manhattan Island ignited a war between Dutch settlers and Native Americans that would last for years.
#25 - Pheasant Fealty
After the Treaty of Arras in 1435, the international policies of the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, had to overcome several hurdles if he was to achieve his aim of obtaining as much territory and autonomy as he could.
Our Colonial Legacy
The Struggle For Political Participation Is Never Over
Wim Blockmans' book 'The Voice of the People?' could be useful in dealing with today's 'crisis of democracy' and in tackling the unease caused by political stagnation.
American And Dutch Feminists Fought Side By Side For World Peace And Women's Suffrage
Social activism and the struggle for women’s suffrage in the early twentieth century brought together women from countries around the world, including Jane Addams from the United States and Aletta Jacobs from the Netherlands.
Migration, the Other Way Around
Antwerp's Expunged Protestant Past
Two Antwerp monks were burned at the stake five hundred years ago because of their Lutheran beliefs. Their deaths remind us of a piece of the faded religious past of the Low Countries.
Simon Gronowski's Great Escape from the 20th Nazi Convoy
92-year-old Holocaust survivor Simon Gronowski talks about his spectacular escape from a deportation train to Auschwitz, why he befriended the son of Flemish Nazi supporters, and reminds us why we should remain vigilant against political extremism.
The Vanished Birthplace of Emperor Charles V
Although Charles V was born in Ghent, few things in the city refer to him, except for the Prinsenhof.
Our Top History Stories of the Year
Join us in bidding goodbye to 2023 with some of the most surprising stories we have published this year about the history of Flanders and the Netherlands.
Sojourner Truth: How the Enslaved Woman of a Dutch-New York Family Became an Icon of America’s Black Liberation Movement
Few people know that the first African-American woman to be honoured with a bust in the US Capitol was a native speaker of Dutch.
Reformation in the Low Countries: Religious and Political Turmoil in the Sixteenth Century
In a special episode of The Low Countries Radio, we talk to Christine Kooi, professor of European History, about the turbulent Protest and Catholic Reformations in the Low Countries of the sixteenth century.
How Peter Stuyvesant Became an Anachronistic Symbol of Dutch-American Friendship
In New York City, the historical memory of Petrus Stuyvesant has recently become controversial, but in the twentieth century, the image of the Dutch director-general of the colony of New Netherland was iconic as a symbol of Dutch-American friendship.
A Forgotten Dutch Tragedy on Lake Michigan
On 21 November 1847, the Phoenix steamship burned to the waterline on Lake Michigan and 154 passengers lost their lives. Most of them were Dutch immigrants.
Harvest of the University Press (autumn 2023)
Our selection of recent university press publications in English on the Low Countries.
A Walk Along the Western Front
Discover the war-scarred landscape around Ypres by walking along the former line of the trenches.
The Tulip: the Myth, the Mania and the Man
We dig up the bulbs of the past, trim the stems of historical myth and emerge with a lustrous vase of understanding as to where the tulip came from, how it came into vogue in the Dutch Republic and what place the flower holds today in the Netherlands.
# 24 – How Philip the Good Crowned Himself “Grand Duke of the West”
Using pomp, ceremony and patronage of the arts, an image was created of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, as a wise, just and fair ruler; the “Grand Duke of the West”.