A review by lindseysparks
Amsterdam: A History of the World's Most Liberal City by Russell Shorto

3.0

I learned a lot from this, but I wish some of the history had been more clear. The author didn't always provide dates, or didn't clearly attach them to events, and sometimes it was like he was trying to build suspense by describing someone and not providing their name for a while. The flow and organization just didn't work for me. But, I did like how he focused on the idea of Amsterdam as a liberal city and how it's impacted the world. (Liberal in the classic sense, not modern liberal politically) Amsterdam is adorable and I enjoyed learning things like how the canal houses came to be, I addition to things like how the Dutch helped populate America, promote birth control (and not in a creepy eugenics way), influence England's constitutional monarchy and increase trade.