Sublime

1300 Amsterdam c. 1575 Amsterdam c. 1650 Amsterdam c. 1980

Amsterdam is now situated appeared at the end of the twelfth century, set on a layer of clay formed by the great floods of 1170 and 1173.

Less but better

On Europe’s Inner Asian frontier, demographic expansion long seemed as hobbled as it was in mainland North America until the 1750s.

What excited Europeans was the belief that they had both the right and the means to ‘make’ or remake America in Europe’s image, or even as an improved version of the old continent.

“we have entered a different phase for the economy, a new era where production matters less and what matters more is access to that production: distribution, in other words—who gets what and how they get it”[282]. In this context, there