Public monuments are considered an important tool in the nineteenth-century nation-building project. Yet while the intended (nationalist) message of the monumental landscape is often clear, the... Show morePublic monuments are considered an important tool in the nineteenth-century nation-building project. Yet while the intended (nationalist) message of the monumental landscape is often clear, the popular perception of the statues and memorials has been little problematized. This contribution analyses the popular interaction with public monuments in late nineteenth-century Amsterdam and questions whether ordinary people understood the nationalist meaning. With the help of visual sources – engravings, lithographs and the novel medium of photography – we become aware of the multilayered meanings and usages of the monuments in daily urban life, thus tackling the methodological challenge of studying the monumental landscape from below. Show less
This dissertation focuses on the workings of popular national agency in late nineteenth-century Amsterdam and the question in what ways and to what extent ‘ordinary’ citizens constructed and... Show moreThis dissertation focuses on the workings of popular national agency in late nineteenth-century Amsterdam and the question in what ways and to what extent ‘ordinary’ citizens constructed and experienced ‘the Netherlands’ through their urban surroundings. It steers away from a top-down perspective and considers the lower and middle social classes as actual actors in the process of democratising the nation. The argument of the book is centred around five case studies: the popular experience of public monuments and statues; the singing of the national anthem; popular Orangism; the public response to the Boer Wars; and the commercialisation of the nation in an urban context. Show less
