Amsterdam!

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The Island at the Center of the World is a really cool little book (by Russell Shorto; out in paper) about the Dutch colony in New York area, their contribution to the development of the culture and government of the city, the state and (according to the author) the United States and how, in standard history-written-by-the-winners fashion, it was papered over by their British successors and their descendants (Washington Irving’s witty dissing of the Dutch was still a mandatory part of the school curriculum when I was a kid—in New York.) Factoids from the book: the word “boss” is Dutch, and the Springsteen name is a suggestion that Mr. Irving did not necessarily get the last word.

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