Description
Culture Smart! The Netherlands will take you beyond the stereotypical images of windmills, clogs, cheese, and tulips to understand the complex layers of Dutch identity. It describes through illustrated, easy-to-follow chapters the main features of modern Dutch society and offers insights into the values at the heart of Dutch life.

There are useful tips on what to expect and how to behave in different circumstances. For business travelers, there is a section on the Dutch business style and working practices. This pocket-sized book provides an understanding of the Dutch egalitarian approach, exploring how the recent recession might have put this under threat, even though the country is now returning to a period of economic growth and stability. Intelligent, cosmopolitan, outward-looking, enterprising, tolerant, and modest, the Dutch are people worth getting to know.

This small, densely populated, low-lying country on Europe’s northwestern seaboard punches above its weight. As the name “Netherlands,” or lowlands, suggests, nearly 25 percent of it is below sea level and the Dutch have spent centuries keeping the North Sea at bay with an elaborate system of pumps and dikes. Hence the saying, “God made the world, but the Dutch made Holland.” Their engineers turned the power of wind and waves to their advantage. A maritime nation, they set out to sea to explore and trade with other countries, and built a network of rivers and canals for transportation and as part of their defences. The seventeenth century was their golden age, when the Dutch maritime trading empire straddled the globe, bringing unprecedented wealth into the country, and the scientific and intellectual life it stimulated ushered in our modern age. Today the Netherlands is still a prime economic hub of Europe and the port of Rotterdam is the largest in the world.

The Netherlands has an international reputation for its concern for justice and human rights. It is also famous for its liberal attitudes, which are reflected in Dutch law and are especially evident in the capital, Amsterdam. However, in recent years fears about high levels of immigration have resulted in the rise of populist movements, and the moderate majority are concerned that these may alter the fabric of their tolerant Dutch society. The visitor will find, though, that the predominant attitude continues to be one of “live and let live,” and that many different parts of the general community live alongside each other in harmony.