Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland ： with a view of the

Motley, John Lothrop, 1814-1877Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.1
Word count
88K words
Chapters
9

Tags

English Originals World History Historical ReappraisalDiplomacyPolitical CareerPower GameAntiheroComplex HumanityHistorical CriticismReligious ConflictEarly Modern Europe

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland : with a view of theAuthor: Motley, John Lothrop, 1814-1877,Language: English, Class: DH: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Release Date: Jan 1, 2004

Editor's review

This book is a biographical history by the nineteenth-century American historian Motley on the Dutch statesman John of Barneveld, issued as a free public-domain eBook by Project Gutenberg. Motley is known for vivid narrative and rich documentation; this work recounts the political career and tragic end of the Advocate of Holland amid the intertwined struggles for Dutch independence and religious conflict, and may be read alongside the author's other works on the rise of the Dutch Republic. For readers studying early modern European history, the Dutch Revolt, or political biography, it offers a relatively complete first-hand narrative perspective and can also serve as a sample of nineteenth-century English-language historical writing. Note that the author holds a pronounced liberal Protestant standpoint; readers should weigh it against other scholarship. The electronic edition is freely available and suits supplementary reading for thematic study or discussion of historiography.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the introduction and table of contents first to clarify the timeline and main figures before entering the text
  2. Keep a chronology of the Dutch Revolt at hand to consult while reading and lower the threshold of understanding
  3. Maintain distance from the author's judgments and check important claims against later scholarship
  4. Close-read selected chapters such as those on the Arminian controversy rather than insisting on reading the whole book through at once

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9

FAQ

Is this book suitable for readers with no background in Dutch history? Not very. The book centers on the political career of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, and involves the complex background of the Dutch Revolt, religious factions, and the stadtholder system. Without a basic framework of Dutch history, readers may get lost among the figures and factions. It is advisable to read a general introductory history first, then return to this book.
Is this the original English edition or a Chinese translation? According to the information, this is an English public-domain eBook released by Project Gutenberg, in English, with no Chinese translation noted. Readers need some English reading ability and may use dictionaries and background materials, or consult relevant Chinese scholarship for support.
Is Motley's narrative stance objective? Motley was a nineteenth-century American historian whose writing carries a pronounced liberal Protestant tendency and who praises and criticizes figures rather directly. The book is vivid and richly documented, but its judgments are not neutral. It is best read as a historically situated narrative with a stance, and checked against other scholarship.

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About the author

Motley, John Lothrop, 1814-1877 Author

John Lothrop Motley (1814–1877) was an American historian and diplomat, known for his historical works on Dutch independence and the Dutch Revolt. His major work, The Rise of the Dutch Republic, narrates in detail how the Dutch provinces threw off Spanish rule and established a republican government, combining rigorous scholarship with a strong narrative drive. His History of the United Netherlands continues the account of political and military developments from the death of William the Silent to the end of the sixteenth century. The collection here contains 103 of his works, mostly different volumes and editions of these general histories. Public information is limited, so biographical details are omitted; his works show a respect for primary sources and a talent for portraying major historical turning points, and they have had a lasting influence on the study of Dutch history in the English-speaking world.