Tulipmania: Money, Honor and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age - by Anne Goldgar

The recent spate of publications on tulips and tulipmania almost constitutes its own mania, but Anne Goldgar shows that this current interest is part of the continuing fascination of the subject, which has inspired comment from numerous writers and scholars from the seventeenth century up until the present day. In  Tulipmania: Money, Honor and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age , Goldgar examines both the voluminous archival records relating to tulip sales as well as literature about tulips, tulipmania, and the tulip trade. This engaging and entertaining study weaves together individual stories of trickery, family feuds, betrayal, and flower lust to paint a vivid picture of what it was like to pursue prized tulips through the gardens and taverns – and often the courts – of seventeenth-century Holland. Goldgar also reviews the emergence of the tulipmania ‘myth’, showing its origins in the popular songs and pamphlets that appeared in large numbers after the 1637 price crash.