Technology and Culture

In the field of history of technology, Dutch scholars are known for their ability to launch large-scale research projects and conclude them with multi-volume publication series. The book series “Technology in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century” with six volumes, and “Technology in the Netherlands in the twentieth century” with seven volumes (published in Dutch by Walburgpers), are impressive examples of what can be achieved when scholars pool their intellectual resources.

This latest work by the proficient Dutch history of technology group might seem no different in that the group effort involved not only these four authors but many more scholars, and the result is a long-term history of the Netherlands seen through the lens of technology. Yet this series differs from others in significant ways: first, it is not a multi-volume series but a monograph; second, it is interdisciplinary, comprising economic history, [End Page 963] environmental history, social sciences, and statistics; third, it is future-oriented and aims to provide policy advice on the guiding question: How can history help shape a pathway towards a low-carbon society that simultaneously fosters social well-being and ecological sustainability? Plus, its publication mode is different. The publisher Springer also offers an open access online version with additional material (mostly in Dutch).

The book’s baseline is the authors’ uneasiness with the conventional understanding of well-being that relates to economic development and is measured in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) changes. Instead, they apply a diversified system of monitoring well-being developed by Statistics Netherlands and adopted by statistical communities worldwide. The set of two dozen indicators analyzed and interpreted in the book cover more than a century and a half (1850–2010), ranging from material welfare and personal characteristics to natural and institutional environments, and from natural and economic capital to human and social capital. The authors’ shared understanding of sustainability extends beyond the conventional Brundtland definition of meeting the present generation’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, not only here “but elsewhere in the world.”

The five parts of this book begin with a lengthy prologue to establish the frame of reference and narrate the Dutch situation around 1850. Three chronological sections follow: the “Great Transformation 1850–1910,” the period of “New Problems 1910–1970,” and the “Great Turnabout 1970– 2010.” A substantial epilogue summarizes long-term developments since 1850, provides an outlook into the future around 2050, and offers strategies for sustainable well-being. The main narrative is linear. From a country plagued by extreme poverty and huge inequality in 1850, the Netherlands became a wealthy and comparatively just society, experiencing a vast increase in well-being over the following century. Economic modernization and social justice came at a price, namely depleted natural capital. The turning point was in the 1960s and ’70s, when sustainability issues became visible and the transition to a postmodern society began. With industrial transition and the return of economic crises, social inequality increased as did sustainability problems in ecological systems both at home and abroad. A particular strength of the book is that it is not confined to the Dutch nation and highlights the global entanglements in Dutch history. With an open economy based on international trade, the Netherlands externalized environmental problems “elsewhere,” implying that the increased well-being within the nation went hand in hand with a decline abroad. The environmental cost, at a spatial as well as a temporal level, shifted to an undefined “later,” when future generations will have to deal with the consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Harry Lintsen and his team are to be lauded for a convincingly conceptualized techno-scientific, economic, and social history of the Netherlands. [End Page 964] One could criticize that the book’s structure creates recurrences and limits its narrative quality. Also, some chapters do not have up-to-date...