The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age

In the seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic—a small country that expanded its land by pumping it out of the sea—became the richest society on earth. Calvinist preachers warned that abundance would corrupt the young republic, even as merchants filled their houses with paintings and imported luxuries. The book ↗ argues that this unease with success shaped Dutch habits of charity and civic duty, and examines how the first modern society decided what to do with its wealth.