Een blauwdruk van blauwdrukken

Abstract

In this essay I express my greatest admiration for Mijnhardt's and Kloek's Blauwdrukken. Not only does the book discuss with an unparalleled richness of historical detail a period in Dutch history that was often dismissed as not being worthy of our interest, but it also proposes a most original and fruitful approach to the major problems of Dutch culture at the end of the eighteenth century. Nevertheless, the authors of this marvelous book could be criticized for not having been sufficiently aware of what one might call 'the cognitive dissonance' between late eighteenth century Dutch culture, on the one hand, and what happened in the world of culture at the same time in England, Germany and France, on the other. A tentative suggestion is made for how a greater awareness of this cultural gap might have altered the picture presented in this impressive and most valuable study.

This review is part of the discussion forum IJkpunt 1800.