The Merchant Republics

Mary Lindemann is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Miami. She is the author of four books and of numerous articles. She has also been the recipient of several major grants and awards, among them the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health; the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences and the Humanities; the Flemish Institute for Advanced Study; and the Shelby Cullom Davis Center, Princeton University, New Jersey.

• Introduction: a tale of three cities; 1. A topographical perspective; 2. Political dynamics and dilemmas; 3. Discord; 4. Merchants and republicans; 5. Virtuous commerce; 6. Virtue bankrupt; Conclusion.

'The Merchant Republics expands outward from the most prominent North German commercial center, Hamburg, and presents it alongside Antwerp in the Southern Netherlands and Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic as part of an innovative and comparative study of three leading European commercial centers. Comparative history of this kind is a very difficult genre to produce, but Mary Lindemann has succeeded to a remarkable extent. This book is far more than three parallel studies within one book. By acknowledging the real contrasts between Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg, Lindemann is able to make some effective and revealing comparisons, located in the context of each city's earlier evolution, and to highlight the real similarities. Lindemann is one of the most distinctive voices currently writing about the 'long eighteenth century', and her latest book will add to her already high reputation.' Hamish Scott, University of Glasgow