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Brussels' urban space, like that of many other cities, is dotted with evidence of a productive industrial past. The activities that took place there were generally not geared to mass production for export, but to small-scale manufacturing aimed at supplying the needs of local city dwellers. That small-scale manufacturing industry included members of the building trade such as contractors, joiners and builders' merchants who catered to the demand for housing in an ever-expanding city. Their business premises formed a vital link in the creation and renovation of the urban fabric. This article focuses on the values of small-scale industrial heritage from the building trade, which is under enormous pressure in a city like Brussels. The dynamics of constantly rising real estate prices make residential redevelopment a lucrative investment. Thanks to gentrification, many workshops are being converted into housing and former warehouses are falling prey to large-scale property development. Real estate dynamics, scaling-up and changing market conditions are also contributing to the disappearance of the small-scale, live-work fabric that fosters a beneficial mix of functions. The expertise and skills that for centuries have supplied the basic needs of the city in a sustainable manner are then lost. In light of growing traffic congestion and unemployment, academics and urban planners are becoming increasingly convinced of the need for permanently embedded, city-servicing economic actors like building businesses. Thus, even today, small-scale industrial heritage is vital to the functioning of the urban economy, in that offers the possibility of spatially organizing or reorganizing city-servicing activities within a dense urban fabric. Inspired by integrated concepts of heritage, we therefore argue in favour of a broadening of industrial heritage values aimed at anchoring the use of such locations in time and space. We take issue with an exclusively material approach to industrial heritage by pointing out the immaterial heritage value of a continuity of productive use. After a brief theoretical reflection on the value of small-scale industrial heritage in the city, we examine the historical evolution of Brussels' industrial heritage at the macro level between 1890 and 1970, the period in which the development of the suburbs of Brussels was in full swing. We use a series of exemplary cases to illustrate the different trajectories of continuity and discontinuity of heritage on the one hand, and productive use of building trade locations in Brussels on the other. We also try to get to grips with the motivations of businesses that abandon the city, cease to exist or manage to adapt to volatile market conditions. This article uses a selection of cases to challenge a purely material approach to industrial heritage and makes the case for further research into the question of how individual heritage legislation might also recognize immaterial heritage values in historical business activity on a particular site or in an industrial building.

After the Vienna Congress in 1815, the Allied ministers did not return home, but continued their negotiations in Paris. They deliberated on the measure of reparation payments and arrear payments that France owed to the other European states. The new peace also rested on financial securities. The United Kingdom of the Netherlands assumed a large part in these conferences, since through the mass of private claims it was France's largest creditor. In this article we demonstrate how, as one of the essentials of the new concert diplomacy of 1815, smaller powers such as the Netherlands were allowed to weigh in on the Four Powers' deliberations in Paris. The political conundrums regarding these financial securities and reparationshave not been charted and analysed before. Through previously unstudied sources,such as the minutes of the Paris Ministerial Conference, we discuss the influence a secondary power could exert provided they deployed smart financial experts. Under that condition large political and financial gains could be made.

In the summer of 2013, the Vlaams Agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed (Flemish Immovable Heritage Agency) investigated a modest little school building in the vicinity of Ghent (Belgium). The old building proved to be a reconstruction of the model school in the Modern Village, a Belgian government pavilion of great social significance at the 1913 World's Fair in Ghent. The model school is the only surviving building from the Modern Village.Since this discovery, further investigations by the heritage agency have revealed the dearth of scholarly studies of either the Modern Village or the model school building. The great social importance of this Belgian rural model school is, however, becoming increasingly clear. This article is a critical assessment of that importance. A brief outline of the historical context in which the Modern Village and the model school came about is followed by a description of their social significance and the impact on Belgian and European society. The starting point is an analysis of the evaluation reports of the Modern Village published in book form by the then director general of the Ministry of Agriculture, Paul De Vuyst, and a member of parliament, Emile Tibbaut. The authenticity of the reconstruction of the model school is assessed based on recent construction history research. Finally, the question of the extent to which the model school design was adopted was explored during a field trip with the help of local cultural and archival agencies. The 1913 World's Fair in Ghent took place in a period of mass rural migration that resulted in poverty and social unrest in many parts of Europe. The Belgian government was keen to do something about this by building a new countryside with a better quality of life. To that end they exhibited the Modern Village – a practical and instructive embodiment of their policy – at the Ghent World's Fair. The ambition was to modernize the rural economy and beautify the villages. Via the introduction of compulsory education for children between the ages of six and fourteen, future generations would be taught the skills and techniques needed to modernize the economy and simultaneously achieve the edification of the rural population, central to which was a love of one's own region and traditions. The effects of the Modern Village on the modernization of agriculture and on the improvement of the quality of life were felt mainly after the First World War, not just in Belgium but in other countries, too, such as Hungary. The model school in the Modern Village was conceived as an affordable and easy-to-build school building that would facilitate the realization of this new rural culture. The construction survey has demonstrated the authenticity based on the specific roof shapes in stone dating from over a hundred years ago. Recent field research complements the latest investigations by the Flemish Government and strengthens the hypothesis that the model school was widely emulated and played an important role in the implementation of compulsory schooling in Belgium. Further research is necessary, not least to obtain clarity about the adoption of the new teaching methods presented in the model school and the significance of small primary school libraries for the general edification of the rural population.

Klep, Christ, Somalië, Rwanda, Srebrenica. De nasleep van drie ontspoorde vredesmissies (Dissertatie Utrecht 2008; Amsterdam: Boom, 2008, 385 blz., ISBN 978 90 8506 668 2)When the Home Front meets Foreign Parts. The Aftermath of Commissions of Inquiry into derailed Peace MissionsPeace Missions take place in difficult and volatile circumstances. It is therefore hardly surprising that some peace missions become 'derailed'. Christ Klep zooms in on three 'derailed' missions in his book and focuses on the value of Commissions of Inquiry which are subsequently set up as a result of public and political pressure. Do they succeed in revealing the 'how' and the 'why' of such derailments and – above all – identifying those who are responsible? Based on a broad spectrum of questions and extensive source materials, Klep concludes that 'the number of escape routes from the labyrinth of responsibility is practically infinite'; a clear message for all those taking part in international and domestic politics. It is here that the author skillfully and expertly succeeds: exposing the complex entanglement of domestic and foreign policy, even concerning events that sometimes happen away from the capital city.

Klep, Christ, Somalië, Rwanda, Srebrenica. De nasleep van drie ontspoorde vredesmissies (Dissertatie Utrecht 2008; Amsterdam: Boom, 2008, 385 blz., ISBN 978 90 8506 668 2).ResponseThe validity of my comparative approach (Somalia-Rwanda-Srebrenica) still stands, in my opinion. At the level of political responsibility and the process of coming to terms with events, the similarities are stronger than the differences. My estimation that the Inquiry reports were 'hijacked' by almost all of the stakeholders involved (especially the Canadian, Belgian and Dutch governments) is more of a matter of fact and a political reality than a reproach that ought to have legal implications. Finally, the question of how far the three governments that were involved learned lessons from the three affairs is difficult to answer. Was it not also the wider developments (for example, the switch from the 'blue' missions to the more robust 'green' missions) that compelled the lessons to be drawn out?

This book deals with community-building as it manifested itself in early modern 's-Hertogenbosch. Citizenship and autonomous collective organisations were phenomena that were present in all West-European cities. Mostly men organised themselves in among others civic militias, craft-guilds and the reformed congregation: corporations that may be considered the most important institutions of the middling sort. The members of the corporate institutions rendered their services to a great extent to the master-corporation, their domicile. On the basis of the situation in 's-Hertogenbosch the following questions will be answered: 1. how was civil society formed in Dutch cities in the seventeenth and eighteenth century; 2. in what way did the corporate institutions contribute to the local community-building; 3. how did these social connections develop in time. Craft-guilds, civic militias and the church created a bond between the people. By their regulations members of these corporations took up a juridically clearly defined position towards the inhabitants who did not belong, and especially towards foreigners. In the corporations individual freedom was not sought as its highest goal, but the welfare of the collective. The corporations offered their members dignity, social acceptance, participation, sociability and protection in times of distress, and they bore responsibility for the organization of the city. In this book there is definitely a place for conflict as well. A harmonious and prosperous society is in the view of communautarists like Robert Putnam's almost the natural outcome from citizens cooperating in unions. Conflict forms an essential part of the interaction between people. In spite of the conflicts corporations did not collapse. Corporations underlined the importance of the social bond for the individual as well as the community. The main obstacle was religion. The policy of the town council was directed towards a fair and just treatment of the different confessions within the framework of the Capitulation Treaty of 1629 and the "laws of The Hague". The town council was the guardian of the common interest and it corrected the corporations that were inclined to serve their own ends. Skipping the details Robert Putnam draws attention to the corporations in North-Italian city-states that caused civil communities to bloom. Putnam relates this to the present American society. He just like Amitai Etzioni, another important community-thinker, recognizes the importance of social connections in which members cooperate, have discussions and in doing so keep democracy alive. Communautarists pay attention to the transmitting of norms and values. Corporations in early modern times also were emphatically engaged in this. What applied to Putnam's city-states in the late Middle Ages also applies to the corporations in early modern 's-Hertogenbosch. Members of the corporations created a lively culture of discussion, a necessary condition for a community on its way to democracy. (Jonathan Israel states that 'the democratic republic [started] in the Republiek') In order to deliberate with one another it is important that the partners in deliberation trust one another. Cooperating within social connections and delegating responsibilities is only possible, as Fukuyama points out, if there is trust. Both within the guilds and the militias this trust could grow because quite soon after the Reduction of 1629 the catholic and reformed members started to work on the ecumenicity of everyday life. Schilling and Blickle both ascertain, ignoring details, that changes into a democratic direction in early modern times were initiated bottom-up in small connections. The discussion that Tönnies started on Gesellschaft und Gemeinschaft is still very much alive especially when we take into account the 'golden rules' of Etzioni. He draws attention to the smaller connections - intermediary institutions - that a democratic communitarian society, a 'community of communities' needs if it is to stay alive.

The subject of this study is the strategic cooperation of the permanent members in the Security Council in the period 1946 2000. Because of their right of veto the cooperation of the permanent members has a significant influence on the functioning of the Council. The most important aspects of the cooperation that were investigated are the intensity of the cooperation and the ef-fectiveness of this cooperation in preventing and ending wars. To investigate these aspects, for both the intensity and the effectiveness measuring instruments were constructed. These measuring instruments were based on comprehensive sets of so-called 'leading indicators' and statistical methods and techniques. The intensity of the cooperation increased gradually from 1946 until 1990 (the end of the Cold War). Then it started to increase rapidly until 1996. From 1996 a slight decrease can be discer-ned. The strong increase in the strategic cooperation of the permanent members in the security Council can be established in all the majors forms of cooperation in the Council: the numbers of adopted strategic resolutions and presidential statements, the numbers of employed means (like peacekeeping missions and enforcement actions) and the amounts of money that were spent on peacekeeping activities. Further it was established that the response times of the Council regarding potential and waged wars dropped significantly since the end of the Cold War. The effectiveness of the cooperation of the permanent members in the Council was, insofar this was measurable with the applied method, not good for many years, but after the Cold War a clear improvement can be discerned. This goes for the prevention of wars, as well as for post war peacebuilding and the ending of wars. Also the numbers of potential and waged wars in which the Council not intervened dropped significantly since the end of the Cold War, as well as the use of vetoes. The large number of potential and waged wars in which the Council did not intervene during the Cold War was nearly exclusively caused by 'non decisions' (the non placing of wars on the agenda), and not by the use of vetoes by permanent members, as is often assumed in literature. Further, a comparison of two phase classifications of the Cold War showed that the great powers, even when there are great tensions among them, are prepared to cooperate in the Security Council to resolve strategic matters, if they consider this in their interest. Analyses of the adopted strategic resolutions during the Cold War revealed that cooperation here was nearly exclusively limited to issues that were not core issues of the Cold War. From this it can be concluded that cooperation against third party states was a basis of cooperation of the great powers in the Security Council. Finally, the results of this study show clearly that the Security Council was regarded and used to a large extent by the permanent members in the period 1946 2000 as an instrument of foreign policy to pursue their national interests, and not as an instrument of the world community to prevent and end wars.

Hans Schippers surveys the position of Hezbollah in Lebanese politics and its relations with Iran and Syria. Hezbollah is an organisation with two faces. Together with Amal it represents the Shia in Lebanon. It participates in elections and the government. However, in the Southern part of the country Hezbollah constitutes a state within a state, with a militia and a social and medical network of its own. Most of the costs of this structure are paid for by Iran. The Shia leadership of Iran also played a vital role in the establishment of the organisation in 1982. Syria acted as the protector of Hezbollah in its agitation against Israel. With the departure of Syrian troops following the Cedar Revolution in the spring of 2005 most non-Shia Lebanese wanted to see the Hezbollah militia, seen as a pro-Syrian force, dissolved. However, this was refused by leader Nasrallah. The militia protected Lebanon against Israeli aggression, he declared. It is unclear what motivated Hezbollah to kidnap the Israeli soldiers. This action seemed to be co-ordinated with Iran and Syria to divert attention from the Iranian troubles with the United Nations about Iran's uranium enrichment programme. However, also solidarity with Hamas and the personality of Nasrallah may have played a role. The War of Summer 2006 made it clear once more that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict maybe exploited by forces not directly involved, like Iran. The strong presence of European soldiers in the new peace force presents an opportunity for the EU to take the initiative for a restart of the peace process in the region. A new Madrid type conference may offer away out of the deadlock.

'Will the Netherlands be defended?' The debate about NATO's main lines of defence at the beginning of the 1950sAt the beginning of the 1950s, the Netherlands would not have been able to defend itself in the event of a Soviet attack. Despite the fact that NATO, under the leadership of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Eisenhower, and later General Ridgway, was in the process of rapidly building up its defences, it was still incapable of conducting a forward defence. The pivotal political and military issue in the short term centred on one question: Which areas in Western Europe could and should be kept and which not? Answers to this question exposed conflicting national interests and points of view, particularly those of the Dutch and the French. As it was taking a considerably long time to build up the Netherlands' defences, the Dutch government had very few trump cards to add weight to its demands. Indeed, in the summer of 1952, when Parliament asked to be given a precise account of how the Dutch defences were progressing, the government was practically boxed into a corner.

For the Benefit of the Common Good? A Historical View on the Flemish Provinces as an Intermediary at the Level of AdministrationThe nation state of Belgium saw its provinces chiefly as intermediary administrative entities from which political dispute had to be excluded. Nevertheless, they disposed of elected provincial councils and enjoyed fiscal autonomy. Although the provincial governments underwent a slow process of politicisation, the effects of the broad socio-political developments over the course of the last two centuries on this level remained far less tangible, due above all to the slow democratisation of the provincial suffrage. The provinces only had a modicum of public visibility and a very limited scope for policymaking. To argue their relevance, the provincial governments referred occasionally to the shared history of their respective inhabitants or to their cultural coherence(s). But this discourse was not powerful enough to shape a common provincial cultural identity. Moreover, it clashed on the artificial borders of the provinces and with the much stronger feelings of local and regional coherence. By clustering these expressions of (sub)regionalism, the provincial governments may have provided building stones for the creation of identity-structures on a higher level. However, this role too remained very modest and can hardly be used to substantiate the institutional tenacity of this level of government.

Dutch socioeconomic concertation has experienced some transformative changes in its modus operandi in recent years, which has given the 'Polder Model' a new lease on life for the time being. Building on an older tradition of sharing political space with civil society organizations, the recent liberal-social democratic government coalition, with Mark Rutte at the helm (2012-2017), has been able to enact a surprisingly successful structural reform agenda in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Governing in times of significant economic, social and political uncertainty, it is no mean feat that the Rutte II administration – de facto a minority government – is the first Dutch coalition to complete its term since the administration under Wim Kok (1994-1998). After the foundational Social Accord (the so-called Mondriaan Akkoord) in April 2013, a series of reform agreements were reached in the policy areas of education, housing, healthcare, industrial and energy policy. For each of these more meso-level accords, a variety of civil society organizations participated that were beyond the traditional social partners of business and labor. Over time these seemingly ad hoc, open and non-hierarchical agreements materialized in a trajectory of cumulatively transformative policy change. The political tactic of the Rutte II government stands out in comparison with the halcyon Dutch miracle era of the Polder Model in the 1980s and 1990. We explain the new modes of Dutch socioeconomic policy concertation and its political tactic as a kind of rallying around existing institutional arrangements to bring the contested political and social center together behind a major adjustment strategy, including retrenchment, compensatory social meas­ures and investments, when reform output and outcomes are fundamentally uncertain. Whether the new Polder Model will prove robust remains an open question. Recently, new multiple party covenants were negotiated in the textile and banking industry. Meanwhile a number of issues concerning regional labor market regulation and work-life balance reconciliation have yet to be resolved.

This study deals with the rise and decline of the system of unelected representative bodies that accompanied post-war democracy in the Netherlands. After World War II, the number of these unelected representative bodies grew spectacularly, but from the seventies onwards, it started to decrease. How can we account for this remarkable political change? In traditional historiography, this change is associated with the pillarisation of Dutch society, the institutionalisation of corporatist arrangements, the emergence of new social movements or the deep-rooted practice of consensus building. As these accounts turn out to be problematic, this study focuses on the democratic character of unelected representative bodies. Chapter 1 introduces a framework for analysing the democratic character of these bodies, based on the criteria of a democratic political order as identified by R.A. Dahl. The framework encompasses the constitution of the domains represented by unelected bodies; the recruitment of their members; the tasks they fulfilled; and their internal decision-making process. Chapter 2 presents the cases used to analyse how the democratic character of the system of unelected representative bodies developed. These cases are the Sociaal-Economische Raad (1950), the Landbouwschap (1954 - 1995), the Nationale Raad voor Maatschappelijk Werk (1946 - 1989) and the Raad voor de Kunst (1955 - 1995). Chapter 3 shows that the represented domains were either constituted from above by the state or from below by interest groups. The involvement of interest groups led to the exclusion of rivals and, later on, to petrifaction, with the composition of unelected bodies remaining the same despite fundamental social changes. Chapter 4 highlights a similar pattern as the members delegated by interest groups managed to exclude a large number of newcomers. This resulted in a fierce critique of the involvement of interest groups in member recruitment and led to a new generation of unelected councils composed of independent experts. Chapter ...

In the 1970s and '80s residents and architects in Amsterdam worked together to shape the renewal of their neighbourhood. Working outside traditional planning constraints they initiated a process for designing 'neighbourhood plans' that gave priority to affordable housing and minimized disruption to the existing social and urban design structure. Although these neighbourhood plans stood in stark contrast to prevailing political and urban planning ideas, they formed the basis on which urban renewal was realized from the middle of the 1970s. While the focus in the historiography of urban renewal is usually on politics and policy, this article provides insight into the design process itself and the ideas behind urban renewal architecture based on numerous consultation documents generated by the collaboration between local residents and architects. The Dapperbuurt area serves as an exemplary case study. The example of the Dapperbuurt shows that locals and architects formed energetic and effective coalitions. After the residents of the Dapperbuurt had won far-reaching control over the design process, including a say in the choice of architect, they entered into a collaboration with the architects Hans Borkent, Rob Blom van Assendelft and Hein de Haan. During the extensive consultation process the architects acted as equal discussion partners rather than all-knowing experts, while local residents provided creativity and spontaneous initiatives and had the final say. Together they designed with 'direct democracy'. In this article those collaborative arrangements are referred to as 'creative housing coalitions'. This term expresses both their main aim and their greatest strength. It also shows who initiated the urban renewal housing projects and how grass-roots initiatives were ultimately translated into policy. In the course of the design process, local residents and their architects sought creative ways of reconciling the apparent antithesis between the historically evolved city and modern architecture and urban design. Instead of taking a blank slate as their starting point, they proceeded on the basis of the qualities of the existing environment and the interests and wishes of the residents. This resulted in the retention of the existing morphology and functional diversity. However, the housing projects were on a much larger scale than the individual buildings that had previously made up the neighbourhood, because while the local residents were unwilling to give up their familiar living environment, they did want modern home comforts. This study has revealed that the replacement construction was required to combine the best of both worlds. In order to suggest a smaller scale, the external walls were vertically articulated, and their height demarcated by means of balconies, bay windows, hoisting beams, eaves and staggered building lines. So both contrast to and compatibility with the context are relevant criteria for evaluating urban renewal architecture. In addition, it turns out that a key merit of this urban renewal was its function, namely to deliver affordable and comfortable housing on centrally located sites with high land values. The architecture gives expression to that function. ; In de jaren zeventig en tachtig gaven in Amsterdam bewoners en architecten samen vorm aan de vernieuwing van hun buurt. Buiten de reguliere kaders om initieerden zij een proces voor het ontwerpen van zogenaamde 'buurtplannen', waarin prioriteit werd gegeven aan betaalbaar wonen en zo min mogelijk verstoring van de bestaande sociale en stedenbouwkundige structuur. Hoewel deze buurtplannen in schril contrast stonden met de heersende politieke en stedenbouwkundige opvattingen, vormden ze de basis waarop de stadsvernieuwing vanaf midden jaren zeventig werd gerealiseerd. In de historiografie van de stadsvernieuwing ligt de focus op politiek en beleid. Dit artikel geeft daarentegen inzicht in het ontwerpproces en de ideeën achter de stadsvernieuwingsarchitectuur aan de hand van velerlei overlegdocumenten die voortkwamen uit de samenwerking tussen buurtbewoners en architecten. Hierbij dient de Dapperbuurt als exemplarische casestudy.Het voorbeeld van de Dapperbuurt laat zien dat buurtbewoners en architecten daadkrachtige coalities vormden. Nadat bewoners van de Dapperbuurt verregaande controle op het ontwerpproces hadden bevochten, inclusief zeggenschap over de architectenkeuze, gingen zij een samenwerking aan met de architecten Hans Borkent, Rob Blom van Assendelft en Hein de Haan. Deze stelden zich in uitgebreide inspraakprocedures op als gelijkwaardige gesprekspartners in plaats van alwetende experts, terwijl buurtbewoners zorgden voor creativiteit en spontane initiatieven en een doorslaggevende stem hadden. Gezamenlijk ontwierpen zij met 'direkte demokratie'. Deze samenwerkingsverbanden worden in dit artikel geduid als creatieve wooncoalities. Dit idee geeft zowel uitdrukking aan hun belangrijkste doelstelling als aan hun grootste kracht. Daarnaast laat het zien wie de woningbouwprojecten van de stadsvernieuwing initieerden en hoe burgerinitiatieven uiteindelijk werden omgezet in beleid. In het ontwerpproces zochten de Dapperbuurters en hun architecten naar creatieve oplossingen om de schijnbare tegenstelling tussen de historisch gegroeide stad en moderne architectuur en stedenbouw te overbruggen. In plaats van een blanco blad als uitgangspunt te nemen, gingen ze uit van de kwaliteiten van de bestaande omgeving en de belangen en wensen van de bewoners. Dit resulteerde in behoud van de bestaande morfologie en functiemenging. De woningbouwprojecten kregen echter een beduidend grotere schaal dan de individuele panden waaruit de buurt tot dan toe bestond, omdat de buurtbewoners hun vertrouwde leefomgeving niet wilden opgeven maar wel behoefte hadden aan modern wooncomfort. Uit dit onderzoek blijkt dat de nieuwbouw het beste van beide moest combineren. Om toch de suggestie van kleinschaligheid te wekken, werden de gevelwanden verticaal geleed en in hoogte afgebakend door middel van balkons, erkers, hijsbalken, dakoverstekken en verspringende rooilijnen. Zowel contrast met als aansluiting op de context zijn aldus relevante criteria voor de waardering van de stadsvernieuwingsarchitectuur. Bovendien blijkt dat een wezenlijke waarde van de stadsvernieuwing haar functie is, namelijk betaalbaar en comfortabel wonen op centrale locaties met hoge grondwaarden. De architectuur geeft uitdrukking aan die functie.

Johannes Henricus van der Palm (1763-1840) was the most famous orator of his age in the Netherlands. He was educated as a Protestant minister, but the revolutionary movements of the 1780s and 1790s launched him into politics and he became Minister of National Education. His extreme tendency to shy away from public conflicts made him less fit for politics and he returned to academia as a professor of oriental languages and sacred rhetoric, after which he reached the pinnacle of fame by speaking about the virtues of peace and harmony at almost every important public occasion. He personified the virtues of the Restoration (1813-1840) and his magnificent voice added to his attraction. Studying the extreme popularity of his oratory and the reasons why he was praised so much helps to better understand this period which was much more devoted to (classical) eloquence than the time after his death. Only if we understand the importance contemporaries attached to oral instead of just written presentation, can historians begin to reevaluate the Restoration that has always been criticised for being dull, superficial and obsessed with reconciling the polarised society after the revolutionary age.Johannes Henricus van der Palm (1763-1840) was de beroemdste redenaar van zijn tijd in Nederland. Hij werd opgeleid als predikant, maar de revolutionaire verwikkelingen van de jaren 1780 en 1790 wierpen hem in de politiek en hij werd agent van Nationale Opvoeding. Zijn extreme neiging openbare conflicten te vermijden maakte hem minder geschikt voor de politiek en hij keerde terug naar de universiteit als hoogleraar in oosterse talen en gewijde welsprekendheid en bereikte toen het hoogtepunt van zijn roem als spreker over vrede en verzoening bij vrijwel ieder belangrijk publiek evenement. Hij verpersoonlijkte de deugden van de Restauratie (1813-1840) en zijn prachtige stem versterkte zijn aantrekkingskracht. Bestudering van de enorme populariteit van zijn welsprekendheid en van de redenen waarom hij zo hoog werd geprezen, helpt om deze periode te begrijpen die zoveel meer gehecht en gewijd was aan (klassieke) welsprekendheid dan de tijd na zijn dood. Alleen als we het belang doorgronden dat in die tijd werd gehecht aan orale in plaats van alleen schriftelijke presentatie, kunnen historici de tijd van Restauratie gaan herwaarderen die altijd bekritiseerd is als saai, oppervlakkig en geobsedeerd door de verzoening van de maatschappij na de revolutionaire tijd.ActualiteitsparagraafSpeeches in crisistijd. Verzoening met woorden in de negentiende eeuw De uitzonderlijke speech van Mark Rutte over het coronavirus staat niet in een Nederlandse traditie van spreken door gezagsdragers. Die was er echter wel aan het begin van de negentiende eeuw, toen de beroemde redenaar, minister, predikant en hoogleraar Johannes Henricus van der Palm bij grote nationale gebeurtenissen het woord nam. Hij behoorde tot de laatste generatie die de welsprekendheid leerde volgens de principes van de klassieke oudheid. In zijn artikel voor BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review (135-1) toont Henk te Velde aan dat Van der Palm door zijn redenaarstalent onvoorstelbaar populair werd. Zijn geruststellende en opbeurende toon paste helemaal in de sfeer van verzoening na de crisis van de Franse Revolutie en oorlog rond 1800. Ook zijn heldere en emotionerende stemgeluid droeg daaraan bij. In de vele beschrijvingen van zijn redes kunnen we hem bijna horen spreken. De volgende generatie keerde zich echter tegen zijn postrevolutionaire harmonie en consensus. Thorbecke nam afscheid van Van der Palms verzoenende crisisretorica: geen holle woorden, maar wetenschappelijke precisie! Hardhandig kwam er een einde aan deze traditie; de nadruk op harmonisch overleg zou telkens terugkeren, maar sinds Van der Palm kent Nederland geen traditie meer van ministeriële speeches.

The hereafter following is abstract of the discourse held by Prof. dr. ir. C. L. Temminck Groll in honour of the jubilee 1899-1989 of the KNOB on September 23th 1989. The KNOB (Royal Antiquarian Society of the Netherlands) exists 90 years. A respectable age after human standards. Although a society depends on human devotion it does not know age limitations. This is an excellent moment to reflect upon our centenary. Then, in 1999, we will have to present an extremely good manifest for the coming millennium! We have been spoiled very much during the past 90 years. Which of the founders would have expected so many people professionally involved at the protection of monuments? Which of them could have estimated the money available to realize restoration activities? Still, despite of all we obtained, we are rightly concerned about our country and especially that part of the world beyond our borders. These concerns are formulated by the National Geographic Society which hereby stated: 'Can we save this fragile earth?' This society aims at the earth herself as well as at human achievements. Co-operation between the protection of nature and the protection of monuments certainly is sensible and could be one of our future actions. How much nature, how much culture is not already 'dead'! Wren's St. Benet in London f.e. seems saved, but surrounded by flowing thoroughfares the church misses every relation with the original urban structure. Thus in fact the monument has not been saved. At Liège, Belgium, 20th century traffic and concrete buildings overran the medieval Place St. Lambert. And what about the European countryside? How much harmonious farmer's land has not been industrialized yet? Old structures disappear everywhere. Instead of the newly made our Society had to study more and more the continuous changes of the already extant. As to our foreign activities, we can distinguish three angles of incidence. First of all: what can we learn from other countries? Our founder mr. dr. J.C. Overvoorde already realized the importance of study of the way monuments are protected in different European countries. ICOMOS at present is the platform to discuss organizational and substantial aspects. Second: stock-taking of Dutch cultural influences to other regions in Europe, which subject used to attract more attention than it does now. At last: Dutch influences beyond European borders. Like our founder in 1910-11 studied Hindu-Buddhistic antiquaries and the monuments of the Dutch East-Indian Company our Foundation Social History of the Dutch Oversea studies these treasures now. One of her working-groups tries to solve Indonesian problems with respect to the protection of monuments and started stocktaking of especially younger architecture and town-planning. Still, a lot remains to be done on this field in the 'West'! Borders fade. But with the introduction of new fields of work we may not forget the old. Not the older monuments, since we are occupied with the young, not the Dutch, being directed at the whole world. After the question of what we study, the question rises how. Our purpose always was protection. Unlike nature culture cannot renew herself: we have to 'maintain'. And then mankind also is a piece of nature with continuous new desires to which the extant has been adapted. 'Maintain' as well as 'adapt to' means: to change. We can let nature change the made - how beautifully weathered the ruins are! - but we can also preserve the weathering - until now. Replacement of weathered material by new in the shape of colour it used to have is another possibility. Also opinions about this sort of alterations are constantly changing. Thus a platform like the KNOB at national level or ICOMOS at international level will always be needed. That's why: an extremely good manifesto in 10 years. One that states that we are occupied with changing instead of static affairs. Alterations must be directed professionally in a careful and modest way. For the real is infinitely more valuable than the copy.