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This ambitious study presents the latest views on Dutch society during the famous Golden Age. No other general work treats the most important themes of Dutch culture, including art, literature and music, so systematically. The national and international political situation is used as a backdrop for an analysis of such major centres of power as the stadtholder's court and the municipal councils. The book lays stress on the intellectual, professional and religious networks of which citizens could be members, and on the important role of family connections. Philosophy, religion and the arts are treated at length, and particular attention is paid to the 'instruments of culture', that is, to the institutions and media responsible for the dissemination of culture, including language, education and the printed word. Although 1650 is the central year, the subject is examined in a much broader time-frame, which makes the book an excellent introduction to seventeenth-century society in general.