Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
Buy Used
$9.17
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.
Used: Good | Details
Sold by apex_media
Fulfilled by Amazon
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: Ships direct from Amazon! Qualifies for Prime Shipping and FREE standard shipping for orders over $35. Overnight and 2 day shipping available!

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you increase your sales. We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon .

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 3 images

Amsterdam: A History of the World's Most Liberal City Hardcover – October 22, 2013

by
Russell Shorto (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Russell Shorto Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Russell Shorto (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 260 customer reviews
See all 8 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$8.92
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
—
$26.23 $4.67
Paperback
"Please retry"
$11.30
$6.25 $2.06
Audible, Unabridged
"Please retry"
$0.00
Free with your Audible trial
Wiley Summer Savings Event.
Wiley Summer Savings Event.
Save up to 40% during Wiley's Summer Savings Event. Learn more.
click to open popover

Special Offers and Product Promotions

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
The latest book club pick from Oprah
"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead is a magnificent novel chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. See more

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday; Complete Numbers Starting with 1, 1st Ed edition (October 22, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385534574
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385534574
  • Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.4 x 9.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (260 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #551,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsRich, resplendent history of a city
By Bluestalking Reader VINE VOICE on September 16, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
I'm partly Dutch by descent, which is why I opted to receive a review copy from Amazon, when given my choice of Vine products. So I'm predisposed toward the subject. But then, anyone who buys the book would feel the same, so there goes my justification for a disclaimer. If you're reading this, you're interested in Amsterdam. Now that we've established that bit of obviousness...

If you're coming into this book with little or no knowledge of Amsterdam you will be blown away by the depth of the detail, the interesting insights and lesser-known history. If you're coming into this book with some knowledge of this city, you'll find the same.

All history should be written this well. It's so approachable and to some extent personal as historian Shorto has spent several years of his life in the city. The prose is smooth; it flows. It's a delight to read, so fascinating I hated putting it down. I even read it in the bathtub and I'm not a bathtub reader. And that is actually a positive point, though it sounds a little silly. Okay, a lot silly.

Reading this book you'll learn what makes the Dutch such determined people, how they managed to turn boggy land into a city, how many things they pioneered - including the stock market. The Dutch East India Company is covered in detail, as well as the tulip craze and how all that nuttiness came about. You'll meet Rembrandt, learning the connection between his life and that of other Dutch names of note. The most brilliant part is how Shorto weaves it all together, how he connects all the dots, explaining all the interrelationships between people you'll have heard of, by way of people you probably haven't.

I enjoy nonfiction, and love history, so I read the genre consistently and know it fairly well.Read more ›
2 Comments 53 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
4.0 out of 5 starsGetting My Amsterdam 'Fix'!
By F. S. L'hoir VINE VOICE on September 2, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
As I stood outside the Central Station one October, after half-a-century's absence, waiting for my daughter to purchase tram tickets, I realised, when the first icy blast from the North Sea bit into my cheek; when I heard the unforgettable cries of the seagulls as they dipped and soared above the canals and gabled roofs; when the musical bells chimed from the churches, Amsterdam is as addictive as the product peddled in one of its infamous coffee shops.

I therefore looked forward to reading Russell Shorto's account of the city in which I learned Dutch, studied music at the Conservatory, married a Dutchman, gave birth to my first child, and left regretfully after four years. How I wish that I had had the author's history with me then, when I was wandering through the narrow streets alongside the grachten--the moats that circle the city, always conscious of the beauty of its art and architecture; of the contradictions of life in what I was assured was the Venice of the North. Instead, with the self-centered blindness of a twenty-year old, I was completely ignorant of the layers of history that went beyond what I saw in the tall houses with their quaint hooks, or what I saw depicted in the immense painting, Captain Banningcocq's Sharpshooters (aka Rembrandt's "Night Watch") in the Rijksmuseum.

For me, Mr Shorto's "Amsterdam" is the most interesting when he peels away the historical layers of the brick buildings, moving from present to to past.Read more ›
3 Comments 40 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsGedogen!
By Greg Polansky on December 17, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Having fallen in love with Russel Shorto's 'The Island at the Center of the World', and greatly enjoying his articles in the NYT, I was eagerly anticipating this book. And I was not disappointed.

In this relatively short history, Shorto weaves his own personal experiences of Amsterdam with the history of the city. In particular, as he shows how Liberalism (note the capital L here: this is Liberalism in the classic sense - personal freedom, economic freedom, individual freedoms and individual rights, etc - not in the American political spectrum sense) defined the city he convincingly relays how the city's unique geography allowed Liberalism to grow and thrive. In particular, the concept of 'gedogen' - hard to translate, but sort of like toleration of what is illegal by not enforcing laws against something - seems to have defined the city of Amsterdam from early on.

Beginning with the miracle of the wafer, Amsterdam grew from such humble beginning. Yes, around a wafer. But hey, it was a different century and rather than tourists flocking to museums, they instead flocked to religious items. So why not a wafer? Shorto then shows how fishing and shipping enriched the city before getting to the best part of the book - the Golden Age of Amsterdam of the 17th century. Probably the highlight of the book for me because this was the age that would then go on to influence New Amsterdam, and through New Amsterdam the whole of the US. Plus there was an excellent section on how the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688 in England was actually a true invasion, despite what British historians may have led you to believe since.Read more ›
Comment 7 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Really interesting book! I learned a lot!!

Published 6 days ago by WSW
5.0 out of 5 starsConceptual city

A fascinating look at The many ways Amsterdam is unique in its ideology. As the ideological. successes of its culture are increasingly under attack globally its way of being is... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Bill Arning
5.0 out of 5 starsinformative and fun to read

Fascinating, interesting, informative and fun to read.

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsRead this before visiting Amsterdam

This book was recommended to me by Viking Cruises before my first visit to Amsterdam. It is a wonderful introduction to this amazing city. Read more

Published 1 month ago by R. Michael Green
5.0 out of 5 starsinformative and easy to read

Thorough, informative and easy to read.

Published 1 month ago by Johngr54
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Read the book - visited the city!!

Published 2 months ago by Tracey L Hall
5.0 out of 5 starslove it!

Very informational, love it!

Published 2 months ago by Jackie
5.0 out of 5 starsloved it

great book, great history, easy to read.....

Published 2 months ago by Jeffrey Roberts
5.0 out of 5 starsCaptivating!

I was captivated from the beginning! I bought this book because Amsterdam is one of my favorite cities but I had NO idea of the complex world history that began there. Read more

Published 2 months ago by JC
5.0 out of 5 starsThe best book on tthe Dutch history in general I ever ...

The best book on tthe Dutch history in general I ever read. Russell as an Alien gives the reader a fresh look on the thought devellopment of the Dutch Nation, its free thinking and... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Amazon Customer

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.