There is no discussion, for example, of the powerful influence of its German neighbours on Amsterdam. Even stranger is that Shorto is effectively unable to come up with a way of integrating or even starting to explain the complex relationship with The Hague or the resentments and aspirations of other Dutch towns.
Above all, he seems to see something natural, special and organic about Amsterdam's freedom. But the city could equally be seen as just a fortunate, remote northern survivor from what had once been a dense network of Low Country "liberal" trading cities, most of which were successfully crushed and normalised by French or Spanish troops.
The ghastly fate of its southern twin Antwerp, once the biggest importer in the world — its people slaughtered, the survivors violently recatholicised or expelled and its access to the sea blocked for two centuries — could easily have been shared by Amsterdam.
On occasion, Shorto is good at wrecking his own argument for Amsterdam's baseline liberalism, by coming up with spectacular examples of city officials being no less terrible than the Spanish. In the first throes of Protestantism, the city was the site of appalling scenes, as Anabaptists had their chests cut open and hearts pulled out to be smeared, still beating, on their faces. And once the Reformation had settled in, as the people of Scotland, New England and elsewhere can testify, there is nothing inherently whatever-bag-you're-into and free-wheeling about Calvinism.
Amsterdam's espousal of reform was accompanied, before and after, with ferocious violence. In his grim, well-handled, sections on the Holocaust in Amsterdam, Shorto shows how, under acute pressure, illiberal, mercenary or vicious strains in the population could be nurtured just as much as in the rest of Occupied Europe. Amsterdam is worth buying for chapter four alone: a superb, gruesome account of the early years of the East India Company another, on reflection, not brilliantly liberal outfit.
Shorto ends by discussing multiculturalism and the new threats it presents to the city's long-cultivated civilised indifference. As his book makes clear, almost despite itself, Amsterdam's form of liberalism cannot be taken for granted, and is more fragile and less ingrained than one would like to think.
The argument within the city about its own identity has been going on for almost a millennium; it can never be assumed that the right people will win.
There is a feeling of general uncertainty. The liberal policies the Dutch are famous for have more to do with pragmatism than tolerance.
Choosing to turn a blind eye to cannabis use and decriminalising prostitution is simply sensible. In recent years there has been a backlash — particularly on drugs, with the cannabis policy being tightened. Probably not. Heijne believes that for many voters, this backlash is also pragmatic. It has become an issue that has torn the country apart.
Was the Netherlands ever as liberal as its image suggested? At least there is now an annual debate over whether or not such a character is acceptable. But still, this is an obvious racial stereotype and just three years ago more than two million people signed an online petition supporting it.
Radhakishun, one of the few mainstream commentators willing to dismiss Zwarte Piet as racist, maintains that the state of the nation in the Netherlands has never been better. Never before have so many Dutch people travelled around the world. Never before have there been so few people falling ill. The state of the nation is nearly perfect. It really seems to work. It has won investment from a range of international news organisations, including Axel Springer and The New York Times though the jury is still out on whether people will pay for its offer.
Completing the triumvirate is WeTransfer, a company that many of its users might assume is based in Silicon Valley rather than beside an Amsterdam canal. More than 70 members of staff tap away in front of large screens, gather around walls covered in Post-it notes or discuss ideas over coffee and croissants at a kitchen table in an open-plan office. That saying is about to be put to the test.
Everyone we meet believes the polder model will survive and the dykes will hold. Amsterdam has become a hub for international companies, attracted by low corporate taxes and a highly educated English-speaking population. Fashion brands, including Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, have established European or international headquarters in the Dutch capital, while a host of technology and financial-services companies have moved key staff here.
Post-Brexit, Amsterdam is trying to position itself as the city best placed to poach companies from London. It looks like your browser has JavaScript turned off. JavaScript is required for this feature to work. Leading the way In a world of geopolitical upheaval and targeted terrorist attacks, mayors are playing an increasingly prominent role. Monocle stalks the corridors of city halls around the world to assess the most powerful and persuasive urban leaders.
Why what Donald Trump does in defeat could have his detractors wishing he was in the Oval Office. China ushers in a new age of seaplane travel as Vietnam attempts to wean its citizens off their scooters. Plus: can you measure the happiness of a whole city? Throwing light on the key issues surrounding the forthcoming US election is what keeps these particular think-tanks busy.
Meet the people whose remit is to separate fact from fiction. Despite a wobbling economy and tightened belts, this small Nordic country is leading the way in education and technology — and reinventing itself for the 21st century. The Monocle Retail Survey is back. However, soon I started to realise that the grit-teeth smile I was so used to adopting when talking about Irish society, was beginning to reappear as I told tales of my new home.
It is difficult to hear Amsterdam being called progressive. Yes, in some respects the Netherlands is a liberal utopia when compared with Ireland — with access to legal and safe abortions since and a fair housing policy that would make young Irish couples sell their souls in a heartbeat — but the traditionalism and backwardness ingrained in Dutch society is of a different beast, one so specific to its own culture that it cannot possibly be compared.
The problem is, that when a city advertises and capitalises on its liberalism to the point where even the most stunted Karen-from-Offaly wants to kick loose and smoke a fat one in Vondelpark with her office mates, the the line between new-age and novelty starts to get blurred. Take the red light district. The street is completely central, yet is kept safely away from anything historical, traditional or landmark-worthy. The state manages to shove the tourist hub in your face and disassociate themselves from it, all at once.
It is not inherently wrong for tourists to want to indulge in the pleasures of Amsterdam. However, red-light prostitution and over a dozen seedy coffee shops clustered around one single canal does not particularly exhibit acceptance, and I learned fairly quickly that the prostitutes who rent windows in the red light district were not the empowered, sex-positive feminists I somehow expected to find.
They were predominantly women of colour, who stood on their feet for hours on end as men, almost always in large groups ranging from fifteen to late seventies gawked without paying a cent before moving on to the sex museum or the red light arcade. This is not any disrespect to the women themselves, but to the system — which is supposed to protect them by making their trade legal, but instead markets prostitution as more of a taboo than if it were still happening around shady street corners.
Instead of opening tourists eyes to the legal sex industry, they blind them, with neon lights and flashy memorabilia; almost to show that Amsterdam, too, thinks that sex culture is outlandish and a cheap gimmick. Everyday, Dutch society disassociates itself further from its main commodities, yet still perpetuates them, with blank expressions, purely for the purpose of trade and tourism.
I find it even more ironic how natives are quick to situate prostitution and marijuana as problematic and separate to Dutch culture, yet vehemently defend harmful traditions that originate from their colonial past. A hard pill to swallow, a black friend of mine living in Amsterdam tells me, when the Dutch have never issued a formal apology for their colonial history.
As socially aware Irish student, I was more than enthused to spend the year in a country whose cultural outlook is considered the antithesis of my own. Upon arriving home, it quickly sunkk in that the Dutch refusal to either dismiss or accept change, regardless of whether it is considered good or bad, indicated toward a cultural hangover that the Irish native within me recognised all too well.
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