Reading List

Find a small selection of recent, recommended books on New Netherland, the Dutch Atlantic world, and the Dutch influence on Colonial America below.

For a full bibliography which includes books and articles, view the New Netherland Bibliography.


General Histories of New Netherland and the Dutch Atlantic World

Jaap Jacobs, The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth Century America (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009)

Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment: War, Trade, and Settlement in the Seventeenth-Century Atlantic World (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2016)

Ned Landsman, Crossroads of Empire: The Middle Colonies in British North America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011)

Janny Venema, Beverwijk: A Dutch Village on the American Frontier, 1652-1664 (Albany: SUNY Press, 2003)

Religion & Religious Toleration

Evan Haefeli, New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016)

D.L. Noorlander, Heaven's Wrath: The Protestant Reformation and the Dutch West India Company in the Atlantic World (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2019)

Slavery in New Netherland

Nicole Maskiell, Bound by Bondage: Slavery and the Creation of a Northern Gentry (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2022)

Andrea Mosterman, Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2021

 

 ​​​​Women in New Netherland

 Susanah Romney, New Netherland Connections: Intimate Networks and Atlantic Ties in Seventeenth Century America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014)              

                       

Native Americans and New Netherland

Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Indians and the Contest for the American Coast (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015)

Paul Otto, The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley (New York: Berghahn  Books, 2006)

Jon Parameter, The Edge of the Woods: Iroquois, 1543-1701 (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2010)

Mark Thompson, The Contest for the Delaware Valley: Allegiance Identity and Empire in the Seventeenth Century (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2013)

Books about the Dutch in North America after 1664

Firth Fabend, A Dutch Family in the Middle Colonies, 1660-1800 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1999)

Joyce GoodfriendBefore the Melting Pot: Society and Culture in Colonial New York City, 1664-1730 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).

Joyce GoodfriendWho Should Rule at Home? Confronting the Elite in British New York City (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2017)

 

About the New Netherland Institute

For over three decades, NNI has helped cast light on America's Dutch roots. In 2010, it partnered with the New York State Office of Cultural Education to establish the New Netherland Research Center, with matching funds from the State of the Netherlands. NNI is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. More

The New Netherland Research Center

Housed in the New York State Library, the NNRC offers students, educators, scholars and researchers a vast collection of early documents and reference works on America's Dutch era. More

 

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