Foreign Rights List 2019 - Boom uitgevers Amsterdam

Foreign rights manager: Eva Wijenbergh e.wijenbergh@bua.nl + 31 20 215 10 71 Publisher: Erno Eskens e.eskens@bua.nl + 31 20

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René ten Bos – Extinction Hans van Maanen – Great Encyclopaedia of Misconceptions Henk Sissing – 4000 Years of Thinkers on Education Peter Wierenga – Touché! A World Tour in Satire Haroon Sheikh – Hydropolitics: Collaboration and Conflict on Seven Seas 6. Jos de Mul – Now, bring me that Horizon! Philosophical Travel Stories 7. Henk Oosterling – Where There’s no Will, There's a Way

René ten Bos – Extinction -

Dutch edition published 2019 | 256 pp. €27,50 English sample available ‘Extinction is without doubt the most painful and alarming ecological catastrophe’ – René ten Bos in Extinction

The ortolan and the crested lark are disappearing. Insect populations are plummeting. The oceans are so empty that one speaks of water deserts. In brief, the extinction of species is going faster than ever, so fast that scientists fear that it will soon also affect humans. Not only is the survival of animal species at stake, but also that of our own.

Ominous journey How have philosophers and scientists thought about the end of life as we know it? René ten Bos takes the reader with him on an ominous journey, beginning his book with the ‘toilet’ of the universe and ends with the Untier that is in all of us. By ignoring the pessimism and nihilism around us, he discerns the possibility of an intimate relationship with extinction. This means that we cannot only shed off our own fatality, but also that we can laugh uncontrollably at ourselves and what threatens us the most.

New ways of thinking about ecology Extinction is a book for people who do not want to shy away from disaster and catastrophe; for people who are open to new ideas and ways of thinking about the ecology. Extinction seamlessly fits in with the discussion about the Anthropocene, a theme Ten Bos has emphatically covered in his earlier highly praised work Wandering in the Anthropocene (Dwalen in het antropoceen).

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‘Sparkling, surprising, but also alarming’ – Trouw ‘Extinciton is a wonderful philosophical treatise on an extremely topical and disturbing subject that affects all people in a certain way… Absolute must’ – Fenna Kortooms

Hans van Maanen – Great Encyclopaedia of Misconceptions -

Not yet released | 320 pp. €27,50

Who isn’t convinced that spinach contains lots of iron, that the Vikings wore horns on their helmets, that Hans Brinker plugged a dike with his finger, that a frog will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death, and that women talk more than men? In the Great Encyclopaedia of Misconceptions, Hans van Maanen exposes many views, that most of us have cherished since childhood, as fiction.

We may live in times of fake news and feverish fact checking, but what about all of the information that we were exposed to in the past by our parents and teachers, and that we since have always accepted as true?

Spinach isn’t particularly rich in iron, Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets, Hans Brinker didn’t even plug the dike in the fictional story, frogs will jump out of the water, and generally speaking men talk as much as women – maybe even a little more.

Our brain isn’t an orderly archive full of reliable facts. It’s more like a messy attic of stuck-up opinions, half-truths and dusty nonsense, which occasionally is in need of a clean-up.

The previous books, The Small Encyclopaedia of Misconceptions (Kleine encyclopedie van misvattingen) & The Encyclopaedia of Misconceptions (Encyclopedie van misvattingen) have sold over 10.000 copies.

Henk Sissing – 4000 Years of Thinkers on Education -

English version expected October 2019 | 256 pp. €22,50 English sample version available

4000 Years of Thinkers on Education contains hundreds of very diverse statements about the significance of education from throughout the centuries. The relevance of many of the statements is striking. For the chapters in this book, Henk Sissing collected statements from over 700 philosophers, pedagogues, teachers, educationalists etc. from all around the world from the past four millennia. The statements are divided into six chapters and subchapters. All statements in the chapters and subchapters are in historical order.

Each chapter is introduced by a duo of prominent Dutch professors, who are also known outside the Netherlands and publish in the international education magazines. Gert Biesta's books, for example, have been translated into 16 languages.

The first copy will be handed over to best-selling author Yuval Noah Harari.

In October 2019 Yuval Harari will receive the first copy of the book. Harari, professor at the University of Jerusalem, is author of the international bestsellers Sapiens, Homo Deus and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.

For the use of the book, a site has been developed in collaboration with twenty Dutch education colleagues: www.4000years.com This site contains, among other things, twelve practical suggestions for using the book in the organization of primary education up to and including universities.

The Dutch-language collection of 3000 Years of Thinkers on Education (3000 jaar denkers over onderwijs) has sold over 7000 copies. The English-language bundle has a lot of new material to offer.

Reviews on 3000 Years of Thinkers on Education (3000 jaar denkers over onderwijs): -

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‘In fleeting times it is a relief to come across a book that, as an answer, does not offer bitesized solutions, but an exquisite collection of statements from all times and different cultures. According to the authors, most of whom are professors, lecturers and teachers with a philosophical or pedagogical background, the statements are meant to be considered for slowness.’ – Psyche & Brein ‘The enormously valuable collection of statements invites you to read and reread. The often provocative statements of these thinkers encourage thinking and reflection. The book is highly recommended for everyone involved in education and can be used very well in schools as a means to reflect on the vision of education.’ Henk ter Haar on www.onderwijsfilosofie.nl

Peter Wierenga – Touché! A World Tour in Satire -

Dutch edition November 2019 | 240 pp. €24,90

Satire is under pressure. The attack on the editors of Charlie Hebdo in 2015 is still on a lot of people’s minds. In many countries artists are still far from free to say, draw and write what they want. But what is satire anyway? Can mocking go too far? And what about different countries, cultures and political systems?

Peter Wieringa describes the origin of satire in the West and explores the role of satire abroad.

He spoke with cartoonists from the US, Russia, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East about their perspective on satire and about freedom of expression in their country. In the final chapter, Wierenga takes stock: is there a global trend to be recognized? In which direction does freedom of expression move if we regard satire as the ‘canary in the coal mine’? When do we actually speak of successful satire?

Touché! A World Tour in Satire takes the reader through many illustrations through time and space: from classical antiquity, via the Renaissance to modern times, and from Europe to Africa and China.

Haroon Sheikh – Hydropolitics: Collaboration and Conflict on Seven Seas -

Dutch edition expected October 2019 | 304 pp. €24,90

Channels are being dug out to create new maritime connections, people are creating artificial islands, and countries are competing for access to ports of island nations, and for new routes along the melting North Pole. What do the shifting power relations at sea mean for the political world stage?

In Hydropolitics, Haroon Sheikh analyses the dynamics on the world’s seas. He describes the relationships between land and maritime powers, water and trade, but also the innovative nature of maritime powers. Special attention is payed to the role of the Netherlands and to the changing relationship between the US, a traditional naval force par excellence, and China, traditionally a land force.

By exposing historical patterns, Sheikh sheds new light on the connections and the dividing lines on the water from a political, economic and philosophical perspective.

Jos de Mul – Now. Bring Me That Horizon! Philosophical Travel Stories -

Dutch edition published 2019 | 256 pp. €24,90 Samples available

Ever wonder what happens when a philosopher books a flight? Jos de Mul, a traveller at heart, takes the reader of his book on a breath-taking journey along communist catwalks, video gaming Indians and psychedelic cyber hippies.

The way we experience the world is determined by the place and time in which we live. However, this ‘horizon of expectation’ is not a prison. Travelling is one of the most challenging ways in which we can broaden, scatter and fuse our limited horizons with those of others.

Philosophical adventure In addition to the known practical worries that every traveller experiences – where can I eat, sleep, etc. – the philosophical traveller is also challenged to understand the meaning of the strange ideas, actions, situations and contexts in which he enters. At that moment the traveller becomes a conceptual tourist, and his journey a philosophical adventure.

Buddha-bots and more Jos de Mul is a real cosmopolitan: he has held visiting professorships in the United States, China, and Japan, and is a popular speaker worldwide. In his travel stories he has introduces us to many wonderful phenomena: Buddha-bots in Japan, talking boots in Helsinki, Alice in Acidland, Balinese traditions, and the Zen Buddhist art of dive bombing.

‘Now, bring me that horizon!’ – Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean

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‘Now. Bring Me That Horizon! will serve as an interesting extra travel guide for when you visit one of the destinations discussed by De Mul. Even those who stay at home can imagine themselves a philosophical cosmopolitan with this book!’ **** - De Volkskrant ‘In this superbly written and personal book, the reader not only experiences the geographic wanderings of the author, but also his journey through our time: 35 years Europe, Asia and America. In passing we are informed in a philosophical anthropological sense about Indians, Romanticism, Chinese avant-garde, (post) colonial man, Buddha and Nietzsche.’– Leo van de Wetering in Nu.nl

Henk Oosterling – Where there’s no will, there's a way -

Dutch edition published 2016 | 464 pp. €32,50

Henk Oosterling’s book Where there’s no will, there’s a way combines scientific study in Western and Eastern enlightenment with a biographical storyline covering Oosterling’s work visits to Japan.

He spent time there in the eighties to learn kendo, the Japanese martial art of sword fighting.

Later he became the Dutch kendo champion and captain of the Dutch national team.

‘What are the differences and similarities between Western and Eastern thought? The Western desire for freedom with its emphasis on critical thinking and autonomous action reinforces the ego. In Eastern philosophy the goal is to be freed from desire, the cause of suffering, and leads to the ego being destroyed. Is there an unbridgeable gap between these cultures of thought? Are they at odds with each other? Or does this suggestion implicitly betray our ‘orientalism’: our view of Eastern cultures that is as romantic as it is colonial? – Henk van Oosterling in Where there’s no will, there’s a way.

In Japanese martial arts you learn to think ‘with the body’ through intensive training, beyond the ego: where there’s no will, there's a way. This premise of Japanese martial arts is reflected in Japanese philosophy and culture.

As a philosopher, Japan expert and former Dutch kendo champion, Oosterling was fascinated by the Japanese mentality and habits. He contrasted it to the Western tradition, which resulted in a fascinating intercultural exploration in which not only large differences, but also striking similarities between Buddhist and Western thinking are revealed.

Where there’s no will, there’s a way was nominated for best philosophy book of 2017.

Reviews: -

‘A practical philosopher’s magnum opus. Not often do you read such a personal yet relevant and substantive book from a Dutch philosopher.’ – Trouw ‘One of his most approachable and personal works … a tour de force.’ - iFilosofie

History 1. Eva Ludeman – #ArabAndSecular 2. The World and the Netherlands. A Global History of the Last Millennium from a Dutch Perspective 3. Bob de Graaff – Threats and Data: Enter the World of Intelligence 4. Reinjan Mulder – Sulfur Water: The Hidden History of a DutchGerman Spa 5. K.R. Sing – Saramacca: A Surinamese Family History 6. Hans van der Sloot – Jenever: History of a World Class Liquor

Eva Ludeman – #ArabAndSecular -

Expected October 2019 | 256 pp. €25,-

Every time we in the West hear of ‘the Arab world’, it’s almost always instantly associated with religious Muslims. But is this justified? Since the Arab Spring, a growing group of young Arabs have quietly renounced their beliefs, partly in response to the fundamentalist violence of groups such as IS. These young people want to be able to decide for themselves what they believe in. They’re committed to democratic reforms, and equal rights for women, homosexuals and other minorities. For them, the internet is what the printing press once was for the Christian world: a sudden source of information, which until recently, was inaccessible. They use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to debate on subjects such as pluralism and better ways to constitute society.

Regimes in the Middle East are terrified of the rise of secularism and therefore have, in many cases, equated apostasy with terrorism. But the genie is out of the bottle. Just as we in the West have been leaving church, so are more and more young Arabs slowly but surely leaving mosques – thanks to the internet.

Karel Davids & Marjolein ‘t Hart (eds.) – The World and the Netherlands. A

Global History of the Last Millennium from a Dutch Perspective -

Dutch edition published in 2017 | 372 pp. €54,90 Samples available

This innovative textbook describes and explains the major worldwide social, political and economic changes through the prism of and their relation to the history of the Netherlands for the last thousand years. It addresses major, world-wide developments in economic growth, state formation, urbanisation, and globalisation, and the way ordinary people experienced such changes.

The book has a global appeal. All over the world, people struggle to establish their national identity within the ongoing globalization process. This book shows how you can study your own country while taking on the crucial world-wide developments that had an impact on your country as well. It helps to understand the continuities and discontinuities in national histories all over the world. For example, the global-local historical approach of De Wereld en Nederland inspired Göran Rydén and his Swedish colleagues to write Sweden in the Eighteenth Century World. Provincial Cosmopolitans (Ashgate 2013).

The Netherlands was a key player in the early modernizing economy of the seventeenth century, being internationally renowned for its scientific progress, book printing, shipbuilding. Its function as overseas trade hub, its early urbanization, and the innovative role of the Dutch East India Company caused scholars to name it the world’s ‘first modern economy’.

The history of the Netherlands shows that it is possible to have global impact without being a large country.

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‘This book is a pioneering effort … This book invites one to rethink the reciprocal relations between the global and the local. That raises the book’s message to a level quite superior to that of the traditional textbook.’ – Professor Bert Altena (Erasmus University Rotterdam) in the International Review of Social History ‘Exactly because the framework is so clear, the authors are able to analyse the developments in well written chapters in a way that is accessible for many (…) A wellthought out textbook for a larger public’ – Dr. Nick Bos, vice-president University of Maastricht ‘The authors succeed in opening up the traditional national history … A textbook for the twenty-first century’ – Professor Eric Vanhaute (Professor in global history at Ghent University) in the Low Countries History Review

Bob de Graaff –Threats and Data: Enter the World of Intelligence -

Dutch edition published 2019 | 264 pp. €24,90

The history and future of intelligence Intelligence is the way to gain an advantage over your opponents. It can occur in all sectors of society: from governments and business to criminal gangs, terrorist organizations, and even football clubs.

Threats and Data presents a clear definition of intelligence and maps its history on the basis of many examples, past and present. At the same time, the book offers a fascinating and at times frightening look at the possible future of intelligence. Ample attention is also paid to the ethical component of intelligence – particularly important because there is much public and political debate on the increasing powers of intelligence services and commercial organizations.

Threats and Data offers anyone involved in intelligence or working in the intelligence field a guide to a better understand and valuation of this complex phenomenon.

Reviews: -

‘This book gives you the knowledge and understanding of a phenomenon that we all have to deal with, whether we like it or not. Recommended!’ – Public Affairs Academy

Reinjan Mulder – Sulfur Water: The Hidden History of a Dutch-German Spa -

Dutch edition published 2019 | 232 pp. €22,50

A historical search in the tradition of Frank Westerman: personal in style and from an autobiographical perspective.

In the summer of 1966, Reinjan Mulder, seventeen years old, experienced an idyllic holiday week together with his graduation class in Haus Jungbrunnen, a monumental chalet on the Bavarian Tegernsee. He later discovered that this chalet was the setting of a turbulent Dutch-German history. Haus Jungbrunnen was built in 1926 by Adriaan Stoop, a wealthy Dutch mining engineer, who came to Bavaria to drill for oil, but instead found a source of sulfur iodine water with healing properties.

Soon thereafter a popular Dutch spa emerged, and in the 1930s prominent Nazis such as Himmler settled along the lake. Also Hitler went rowing here with his press chief Max Amman.

At the local Kurhotel, during the notorious Night of the Long Knives, Hitler personally lifted SA leader Ernst Röhm from his bed to deal with him forever. An intriguing story about the genius loci, the spirit of a Dutch place in southern Germany.

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‘While reading Sulfur Water, I couldn’t get to reading the newspaper anymore.’ – Koster Bookstore ‘Incredible read! Reinjan Mulder turns a small and personal thing into a very special book.’ – Voorhoeve Bookstore

K.R. Sing – Saramacca: A Surinamese Family History -

Dutch edition published 2019 | 220 pp. €20,-

Saramacca is the story of a man and a woman who must find their way in a life of poverty, and struggle with both cultural and religious barriers. Nandoe is an uneducated Hindu from a plantation in Saramacca, whose ancestors came here as contract workers from the British Indies.

In Paramaribo he meets Trees, a Catholic woman who lives in absolute poverty. Her parents died when she was young, and now has fierce clashes with her brother about their traditional culture.

She wants to be able to decide freely about her future. Nandoe is attracted to her, but experiences some doubts, because Trees has such thorough view of life at such a young age.

Closed community Saramacca is a loving and rare, but also candid family portrait from the Indo-Surinamese community, which is known for being shut off. Problems with alcohol use, faithfulness, and political upheavals are mentioned without taboos. The story is set against the background of colonial times, the Second World War – which paradoxically brings economic prosperity – and Surinamese independence after 1975. In the 1980s, the military dictatorship brought a wave of torture and murder. Nandoe and Trees face a major dilemma: stay or flee?

Unique source material The author based this story on around 600 family letters, public archives, dozens of interviews, and literature review. This results in a unique insight into the – mostly underexposed – history of Hindustanis in Suriname in the twentieth century, and thus also into Dutch colonial history.

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‘A great contribution to Surinamese historiography because it describes the life of the ordinary Hindustani man in the last century. This is the first time we can read such a book, which is fantastic!' ’ – Cynthia McLeod, writer of The Cost of Sugar (Hoe duur was de suiker?)

‘Unique approach to Hindustani contract workers and their emancipation process in Suriname. This book captures a piece of unwritten Surinamese history.’ – Rajendre Khargi, chairman at Lalla Rookh, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Hans van der Sloot – Jenever: History of a World Class Liquor -

Not published yet

For centuries jenever, alongside herring, was Hollands most important export product. It accompanied Michiel de Ruyter on his many journeys, was regularly brought to the American frontier, and became Englands most popular spirit ever in the time William III reigned England together with his wife Mary II. Jenever became popular in the Middle Ages as a medicinal bitter and was distilled by monks and alchemists. Authoritative doctors swore by the use of juniper in every conceivable form. Its berries distilled with brandy was the one of which jenever was born, a fact that Jacob van Maerlant, an important Medieval Dutch writer, already reported on in 1285.

Jenever describes the history of this once world-renowned drink on the basis of social developments, the historical context and its cultural significance in both the Netherlands and abroad.