René Koekkoek is Assistant Professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Anne-Isabelle Richard is Assistant Professor at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Arthur Weststeijn is Assistant Professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

• 1 Introduction: Intellectual History in Imperial Practice: René Koekkoek, Anne-Isabelle Richard, Arthur Weststeijn.- Part I Exceptionalism in Visions of Dutch Empire,- 2 Birthing Empire: The States General and the Chartering of the VOC and the WIC: Cátia Antunes.- 3 Empire of Riches: Visions of Dutch Commercial Imperialism, c. 1600-1750: Arthur Weststeijn.- 4 Hyper-Imperialism:  The Dutch Vision of Empire and the Expansion of the European World: Benjamin Schmidt.- 5 Comparatively Exceptional: The Paradoxes of 20th Century Dutch Imperialism and Decolonization: Jennifer L. Foray.- Part II Visions of Dutch Empire in practice.- 6 Institutional Memory and Dutch Colonial Culture in Asia 1700-1870: An Archival Approach to the History of Ideas: Alicia Schrikker.- 7 Envisioning the Dutch Imperial Nation-State in the Age of Revolutions: René Koekkoek.- 8 Rule of Lawyers: Liberalism and Colonial Judges in nineteenth-century Java: Sanne Ravensbergen.- 9 The Glass House Revisited: Radio Broadcasting and the Blind Spots in the Late Colonial State in the Netherlands Indies, 1920s and 1930s: Vincent Kuitenbrouwer.- 10 Epilogue. Colonial distances. Dutch Intellectual Images of Global Trade and Conquest in the Colonial and Postcolonial Age: Remco Raben.-