Why were citizens of a small and politically insignificant European nation like the Netherlands able to represent as natural and normal their paternalistic dominance over ancient civilizations in places such as Java and Bali? How did 'ethical' twentieth century residents of the Dutch East Indies see their idealistic efforts to nurture, tutor and instruct Indonesians in the direction of maturity and, perhaps, eventual autonomy? Gouda searches for answers to these and other deceptively simple questions. In general, she examines ways in which the Netherlands articulated and portrayed its unique colonial style to the outside world.

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Product Description: Frances Gouda examines the different rhetorical approaches to poverty, charity, and social welfare embraced by intellectuals and policy-makers in the Netherlands and France in the period 1815-1854. She explores the different discourses in Holland and France about the revolutionary threat implicit in working-class poverty...read more