This collection of essays critically engages with Charles Taylor’s idea of a Catholic modernity through focusing on the crucial issue of the shape and role of religion in modernity. Taylor launched the idea in his seminal 1996 essay 'A Catholic Modernity?', and the idea is here explored in relation to other Christian denominations and non-Christian traditions. Taylor’s proposal has the potential to become a central and encompassing perspective in thinking about relations between modernity...

We leven in het Antropoceen, het tijdperk van de mens. De invloed van de mens op het reilen en zeilen van de aarde is groter dan ooit tevoren. In een meeslepend betoog geeft Albert Faber betekenis aan deze constatering. Hij neemt ons aan de hand van vele denkers mee van de Malediven naar de Andes, van Siberië naar de Oostvaardersplassen, van de allereerste steden tot aan onze technologische toekomst. Daarbij probeert hij antwoord te geven op vragen als: Wat houdt het Antropoceen in? En hoe k...

We are increasingly realizing that, as a result of technological developments and globalization, problems are becoming so complex that they can only be solved through cooperation between scientists from different disciplines. Healthcare, climate change, food security, globalization, and quality of life are just a few examples of issues that require scientists to work across disciplines. In many cases, extra-academic stakeholders must be involved in order to arrive at robust solutions. Young a...

Even though office gossip is generally frowned upon, many studies show that gossip in organizations is not only inevitable, but can even be a positive communication tool. However, by gossiping in the wrong way, employees can easily lose the trust of their colleagues and be perceived negatively very quickly.

Research shows that people who claim to never gossip tend to be considered as socially inept, but those that are constantly gabbing at the coffee machine are quickly seen as untrustworthy....

Dit boek bespreekt wat vijf homoseksuelen in negentiende-eeuwse medische tijdschriften, op verzoek van artsen die geïnteresseerd waren in 'contrair sexualen', schreven over hun leven en liefdesverlangens, waarbij duidelijk wordt dat zij hun anders-zijn niet goed begrepen maar er zeker van waren geen zondaar te zijn.

Vol zelfvertrouwen schrijft een arts in 1870 aan De Geneeskundige Courant dat zijn liefde voor mannen geen ziekte is zoals de krant had beweerd. Wat dan wel? Daar breekt hij zich...

How ‘green’ were people in late antiquity and the Middle Ages? Unlike today, the nature around them was approached with faith, trust and care. The population size was many times smaller than today and human impact on nature not as extreme as it is now. People did not have to worry about issues like deforestation and sustainability.

This book is about the knowledge of plants and where that knowledge came from. How did people use earth and plants in ancient times, and what did they know abo...

De Indonesische onafhankelijkheidsoorlog is in Nederland lange tijd aangeduid met versluierende termen als ‘politionele acties’. In werkelijkheid was het een ware oorlog waarin Nederlandse troepen met moderne wapens de strijd aangingen. De inzet van artillerie, bommenwerpers en scheepsgeschut werd niet geschuwd in het streven de gewapende ‘opstand’ de kop in te drukken. Wat waren de gevolgen van bombardementen en beschietingen met dergelijk grof geschut? In welke gevallen werden deze ...

It has become increasingly apparent to early modern religious, political, cultural and book-historians that translations provide badly neglected but unique and invaluable insights into the processes of cultural change and exchange. This volume provides a wealth of precious insights into the whole process of translation. The articles shed invaluable light on early modern scholarly practices and careers, cultural exchange and relations, the book trade, and the religious politics of the Dutch Re...

Under the slogan ‘Merdeka!’, the Republic of Indonesia rushed into a battle for independence – a struggle whose outcome no one could predict. Harry Poeze and Henk Schulte Nordholt provide a new narrative about the revolution, focusing not only on the fight against the Dutch but also on the precarious rise of the Republic."

After the horrors of the Japanese occupation, the Republican leaders needed to somehow build a new state. From the Dutch side, they had to deal with short-sighted pol...