American Power in the Netherlands: Modernization and the Politics of Clientelism, 1941-59 [Hardcover]

This book tells the story of American influence within the Netherlands after the Second World War. David J. Snyder reveals that, while American power in the Netherlands grew to touch nearly every aspect of Dutch life, that power was solicited, shaped, and sometimes resisted by the Dutch themselves.

American Power in the Netherlandsprovides for the first time an account of the scale and scope of the US presence, and of the Dutch response to the new American fact of life. The book advances two intertwined stories: the recreation and modernization of Dutch politics, international relations, and socio-economy after the Second World War, and the role of American power in facilitating and advancing that Dutch modernization.

The first exploration of American power in the post-WWII Netherlands and the consequences of that power for Dutch policy in the period.David J. Snyderis an independent historian based in the USA. He is the co-editor ofRebellion in Black and White: Southern Student Activism in the 1960s(2013),Reasserting America in the 1970s: US Public Diplomacy and the Rebuilding of America's Image Abroad(2016), andThe Legacy of J. William Fulbright: Policy, Power, and Ideology(2019). He has been a Netherlands-America Foundation/Fulbright Fellow to the Netherlands and was a Residential Fellow at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.

The product of years of research and deep reflection, this book draws on extensive Dutch and American archives. David Snyder explores the Dutch ambivalence toward the United States in an original way, showing how Dutch leaders skillfully used dependence on American power and aid to shape the postwar future of the Netherlands. His innovative application of clientelism offers an important and insightful transatlantic perspective. Rimko van der Maar, Senior Lecturer History of International Relations, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

David Snyder has produced a