Dutch landscapeThis list is a short bibliography meant as an introduction to literature related to Dutch Environmental History and is far from exhaustive. Environmental History (in Dutch: milieugeschiedenis or ecologische geschiedenis) in the Netherlands is very much concerned with reclamation, water management and agriculture. That is no wonder since about 20 per cent of the Netherlands was reclaimed from the sea or lakes over the past thousand years or so. Many people in the world are familiar with landscape paintings of canals, windmills, ice skaters and grand cloudy skies. In addition many of these paintings contain cattle, humans and houses, windmills, or towns in the distance. This indicates the importance of people in the Dutch environment, which is the product of the interaction between humans and nature over millennia as well as the importance of agriculture for Dutch society. This explains why the history of water management, reclamation and agriculture are dominant issues in Dutch environmental history.

Two other important ingredients of Dutch environmental history are the impact of industrialisation on the environment and development of Dutch environmental policy. The latter is not surprising because the Dutch have been pioneers in this area since the 1960s. This area is likely to become a more important area of research in the near future.

Bennett, Graham. “The History of the Dutch National Environmental Policy Plan”, Environment 33 (September, 1991): 6-9

Borger, Guus J., “The Netherlands and the North Sea; a close relationship in historical perspective”, in: Dietz, Ton, Piet Hoekstra and Frans Thissen (eds), The Netherlands and the North Sea. Netherlands Geographical Studies 325 (Utrecht: KNAG, 2004), pp. 13-18.

Cornelisse, Charles, “The Economy of Peat and its Environmental Consequences in Holland during the late Middle Ages”, in: Hilde Greefs and Marjolein ‘t Hart, Jaarbook voor Ecologische Geschiedenis, 2005-2006, “Water Management, Communities, and Environment. The Low Countries in Comparative Perspective, c. 1000- c. 1800” (Gent: Academia Press, 2006), pp. 95-122.

Dam, Petra J. E. M. van, “Sinking Peat Bogs: Environmental Change in Holland, 1350–1550”,Environmental History, 6 (2001) 32-45

Dam, Petra J.E.M. van, “Ecological Challenges, Technological Innovations. The Modernization of Sluice Building in Holland, 1300-1600”, Technology and Culture, 43, 3 (2002) 500-520

Diederiks, H., and C. Jeurgens. “Environmental Policy in 19th-Century Leyden”, In The Silent Countdown: Essays in European Environmental History, edited by Christian Pfister and Peter Brimblecombe (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1990), pp. 167-181

Fransen, Alfons, “Sharing the responsibility of ecological cahnge. The case of the Diemerdijk, 1670-1770”, in: Hilde Greefs and Marjolein ‘t Hart, Jaarbook voor Ecologische Geschiedenis, 2005-2006, “Water Management, Communities, and Environment. The Low Countries in Comparative Perspective, c. 1000- c. 1800” (Gent: Academia Press, 2006), pp. 143-173

Groot, Ernest de, Henk Kerkhof and Luuk Veening, Land-use changes in the Netherlands: description and analysis of developments in land-uses in the past 40 years (Wageningen: LUW 1988)

Homburg, Ernst. “Pollution and the Dutch Chemical Industry: The Turning Point of the 1850s.” In The Chemical Industry in Europe, 1850-1914: Industrial Growth, Pollution, and Professionalization, edited by Ernst Homburg, A. S. Travis, and Harm G. Schröter (Boston, Mass.: Kluwer Academic, 1998), pp. 165-181

Hoppenbrouwers, Peter, “The Use and Management of Commons in the Netherlands. An Overview.” InThe Management of Common Land in North West Europe, c. 1500-1850, edited by Martina De Moor, Leigh Shaw-Taylor, and Paul Warde (Turnhout, Brepols Publishers, 2002) pp. 87-112

Jong, J de. Dams and the environment: the Zuiderzee damming (Paris: Commission Internationale des Grands Barrages, 1988)

Lambert, Audrey M, The Making of the Dutch Landscape: An Historical Geography of the Netherlands(New York: Seminar Press, 1971)

Liefferink, Duncan, Environment and the Nation State: The Netherlands, the EU, and Acid Rain (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996)

Lintsen, Harry. “Two Centuries of Central Water Management in the Netherlands”, Technology and Culture43 (July, 2002): 549-568

Nienhuis, P.H., Environmental History of the Rhine-Meuse Delta, An ecological story on evolving human-environmental relations coping with climate change and sea-level rise (Springer Verlag, 2008)

Oosthoek, Jan, “The stench of prosperity. Water Pollution in the Northern Netherlands, 1850-1980”, in: Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud & Christophe Bernhardt (eds.), The Modern Demon. Pollution in Urban and Industrial European Societies (Clermont-Ferrand, 2002), pp. 179-194

Pungetti, G., Water Environment Landscape. A comparison between Dutch and Italian planning (Pitagora, Bologna, 1991)

Richards, John F, The unending frontier. An environmental history of the early modern world (Berkely: University of California Press, 2003), “The Dutch Republic”, pp 38-55.

Roberts, Lisa, “An Arcadian Apparatus: The Introduction of the Steam Engine into the Dutch Landscape”,Technology and Culture 45, April 2004. 251-276.

Spek, Theo, “Interactions between humans and woodland in prehistoric and medieval Drenthe (the Netherlands): an interdisciplinary approach”, The Ecological History of European Forests, (New York: CAB International, 1998), pp. 81-93

TeBrake, William H, Medieval Frontier: Culture and Ecology in Rijnland (College Station, Texas A & M University Press, 1985)

TeBrake, William H. “Taming the Waterwolf: Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management in the Netherlands during the Middle Ages.” Technology and Culture 43 (July, 2002): 475-499

Tielhof, Milja van, Petra van Dam, “Losing land, gaining water, Ecological and financial aspects of regional water management in Rijnland, 1200-1800”, in: Hilde Greefs and Marjolein ‘t Hart, Jaarbook voor Ecologische Geschiedenis, 2005-2006, “Water Management, Communities, and Environment. The Low Countries in Comparative Perspective, c. 1000- c. 1800” (Gent: Academia Press, 2006), pp 63-94.

Tol, Richard S.J. and Langena, Andreas, “A Concise History of Dutch River Floods”, Climatic Change 46 (2000): 357–369

Unger, Richard W. “Energy Sources for the Dutch Golden Age: Peat, Wind, and Coal” Research in Economic History 9 (1984): 221-253

Ven, G.P. van de (ed.), Man-made Lowlands. History of water management and land reclamation in the Netherlands (Utrecht: Matrijs, 2004)

Verstegen, S. W. & Zanden, J. L. van, Groene Geschiedenis van Nederland (Utrecht, Het Spectrum, 1994)

Windt, Henny van der & Harle, Nigel, Environmental Chronology of the Netherlands (Haren: Biologiewinkel, RUG, 1997).

Zeeuw, Jan W. de, “Peat and the Dutch Golden Age. The Historical Meaning of energy-attainability”,A.A.G. Bijdragen, 21, 1978

Zeischka, Siger, “Dealing with Diversity: Small-scale Dikes in Early Modern Rijnland, 17th-early 19th century”, in: Hilde Greefs and Marjolein ‘t Hart, Jaarbook voor Ecologische Geschiedenis, 2005-2006, “Water Management, Communities, and Environment. The Low Countries in Comparative Perspective, c. 1000- c. 1800” (Gent: Academia Press, 2006), pp. 175-190.