Holland Mania

Annette Stott

Holland Mania is an extraordinary book about a curious era in which a significant portion of the American sensibility celebrated all things Dutch. This Dutch sensibility - in contrast to earlier and prevailing notions of British traditions in America - was, for a time, almost maniacally taken up. For forty years between 1880 and 1920, this remarkable period in American cultural history took place. In 1903, an editorial in Ladies' Home Journal announced to millions of American readers that Holland, not England, was the Motherland of the United States. Citing evidence of colonial Dutch influence in American politics, cultural institutions, social customs, and even language, the editorial concluded that all truly American characteristics and ideals originated in the Netherlands! It came at the height of a craze for Holland that affected Americans from nearly every geographic region of...