Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City
by Russell Shorto 
2013 / 315 pages
rating – 8.5 / history-travel

Shorto’s books are geared toward the layman reader of history and they are packed with information while written in an informal, somewhat chatty and digressive style. I had no idea Amsterdam had such a fascinating history. Shorto writes well bringing to light a delightful cast of historical characters, some familiar, others not at all. I think I really want to visit now and see some of these places.

Here Shorto’s main theme is to show how Amsterdam’s history and development was based on expanding tolerance and individual freedoms in order to work together as a community more effectively. This was called liberalism for a long time but today it’s a bit more complicated – qualified in some ways. >>>>MORE>>>>