Reviews for Blacks in the Dutch World: The Evolution of Racial Imagery in a Modern Society

The average rating for Blacks in the Dutch World: The Evolution of Racial Imagery in a Modern Society based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-04-02 00:00:00 Daniel Albano This book takes an eclectic look at the treatment Blacks--racialized people in general--received in Dutch society from the fifteenth century to the present. The era it most focuses on are is that of the great Dutch trading companies including the horrific fact of Dutch slave trading . The focus is more on the Gold Coast of Africa and Surinam than on South Africa. That disappointed me because I was looking for insight into the late-nineteenth century race relations in Transvaal and the Cape. But I can't blame the author for not covering everything. He surveys art, music, literature, and commerce for insight into Dutch attitudes towards blacks. The author turns up hopeful and horrific instances of Dutch actions and attitudes. He doesn't have a critical lens through which he surveys all this data--unfortunate, I think, for ultimately the book reads like a series of anecdotes more than a coherent overview of the roots of Dutch attitudes and actions and their impact on people around the world. Still, I learned a lot, and recommend this book as an antidote for anyone who thinks "if you ain't Dutch [or Calvinist] you ain't much."

Review # 2 was written on 2016-09-19 00:00:00 Karen Hoppers Impressive survey of the ambiguous ways black people have been portrayed in Dutch painting, literature and religious discourse over the centuries. Blakely shows how current bias towards black people in the Netherlands has a long history, grounded in the formation of one of Europe's first modern states and its empire.