Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age

If you're in a hurry, this book can be tedious. The few paragraphs in wikipedia on tulipmania pretty much sum up the whole argument of the book. However, if you just want to learn more about the life and people, especially the merchant class in early and mid 17th century Netherlands, this could be a fascinating read.

Carefully researched, well presented, showing the "big picture" and individual stories.

True, it has a lot of probably unnecessary details but i'm learning a lot about Dutch history/language/culture from these details. Whenever the author tries to philosophize, i kind of cringe and skip it - it's pretty arbitrary. You either write a history/fact book or an opinion book, ideally. But it's still good.

This book reads like a college text you had to read for an exam. An interesting topic for me as I was traveling to Holland. If it were written by my favorite author of nonfiction. John McPhee, it would have been a winner. I skimmed through it and couldn't wait until I was finished. Lots of information if you are truly interested in the 17th century tulip trade and not a dilettante like me. The mania for bulbs is often likened to our stock market crashes and internet crazes. The epilogue called "Cabbage Fever " is most interesting so I will give this tome 3 stars.

Important history lesson for us all on the tulip craze.

This is, essentially, an extended argument that the tulip bubble was overblown; and more of a rhetorical device than an actual crisis. The argument is persuasive, but also could have used a stronger editorial hand: this is, itself, a long pamphlet, not a book. Still, an interesting read in a time of new bubbles (and moral judgements).

Many people talk about bubbles. Few will spend time to look into details. This book alone digs in depth.

After reading Tulipmania, I feel that the book could have been better than it was. Goldgar claims that she used firsthand sources that no one else has used to study the topic of Tulipmania before, allowing her to draw conclusions that no one has previously done. Essentially, Goldgar questions the traditional interpretation throughout history of Tulipmania, particularly the effect that the crisis actually had on Dutch society.Even though these new sources shed new light on the topic, I felt that the book could have been delivered in a much better way. Goldgar quickly becomes bogged down with the minutia of the tulip trade. She did talk about overall trends; however, I think the book would have been much more interesting if she didn't spend as much time writing about individual transactions or individual meetings between buyers and sellers. These are necessary to establish the validity of the argument, but I think that the book would be more enjoyable with a few less of these examples.The book also could have been improved with some overall statistics about Dutch society at the time. For example, (without giving too much away) claims about the economic conditions in the Netherlands during the early 17th century could have been backed up with more than just assertions from the author. In addition, the book does not spend a lot of time on some key issues, particularly, why the prices suddenly collapsed. This may have been out of the scope of the book, and the author does state that the issue is extremely complex and has no easy answer. But I think it would have added to the book to spend a bit more time discussing a few of the possible reasons.This is not to say that the book had no positives. Simply by looking at new primary sources, the author has done a great service to anyone interested in Tulipmania, the Netherlands, or early modern Europe. Goldgar uses actual records from the transactions that took place at the time, rather than the pamphlets written by third parties at the time of and shortly after the crash in tulip prices. The author put a lot of research into the book, using those records to come up with an extensive list of buyers and sellers within the tulip trade. By doing this, she develops an accurate image of who was involved in the tulip trade and how far reaching the trade was into society.Another strong point of the book was the description of Early Modern Dutch society. An entire chapter is dedicated to art in Holland at the time and how that relates to tulips and other collectable items in Dutch society. The book also draws a number of interesting conclusions about how business was conducted in Dutch society. As the title suggests, money, honor, and knowledge were all very important themes in the Netherlands.The last chapter and the epilogue were the most interesting parts of the book to me. It is here that the author begins to use the enormous amounts of detail to draw some conclusions about Tulipmania. She explains why Tulipmania was thought to be of such great economic performance, why she feels it was not, and why she feels that the effects of the event were distorted. The epilogue ties everything together with a discussion on values and knowledge within a society.I recommend this book if you are interested in Tulipmania and/or the Netherlands during the early seventeenth century. However, be prepared to slog through minute details to get to the good stuff.

This is an important book that destroys the myth of "The tulip bubble." It's think and deep and very detailed (I couldn't keep all the Dutch names separate), and it has to be, so you understand the context. There was no Tulip bubble, but the truth is far more interesting than that! The story is deftly told by a skilled researcher and writer. I'm amazed at the effort, the depth, the pleasure in the writing. She clearly is in her element here, and her contribution is important. The world needs to understand history to get the future right. As we say, "It's a little more complicated than that." - it really is and it's a joy to learn the complications from such a skilled author. Thank you.