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The Added-Value of Dutch Sense goes beyond that of any competition. This second
edition of Dutch Sense has useful course-book potential in the following areas.
Primarily, this book provides insight to enable others to understand Dutch
people better, and to empower the Dutch to better appreciate the origins of
their very own customs. On Dutch social and cultural history, it provides
nice clarification of the lost tribes who were the early ancestors
of the Dutch, and adds to existing insight by showing how indigenous Dutch
people were not by definition Germanic, but Celtic-Germanic.
The confusion in most history books arose from the fact that the Dutch language
is indeed Germanic. Quite uniquely, this book gives an account of the origins
of many Dutch place-names, including their provinces
and oldest towns. It also underpins the much stronger Frisian influence on
Dutch society, first as colonisers of Holland, Zeeland and Drenthe, and on
the formation of the Dutch language itself, not
to mention ancient Frisian water-defeating technology that yielded dyke-building,
dredging and extensive sea trade. More than any other book has ever done,
Dutch Sense emphasises the Dutch origin of Old English vocabulary,
the true origin of the very word English, and the Christian influence that
led to the confusion about the Angles in Anglo-Saxon history.
Most of all, Dutch Sense relates much of the uniqueness of Dutch
social attitudes, achievements and culture to their peculiar history
from pre-Roman to modern times. For foreigners, it provides ample guide to
the origins of specific Dutch taboos to avoid, in the interest
of more satisfactory living amidst the Dutch. For Dutch natives, it provides
a rich reassessment of the roots of many of their practices, in the interest
of their more effective social and political awareness. Without assigning
undue blame nor engaging in over-exaggerated praise, Dutch Sense shows that
Dutch influence on our modern world is much greater than is commonly known,
and shows that many things for which America is widely praised are in fact
of Dutch origin. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this book which was
written by non-indigenes is that many of the great revelations it offers were
not known to even enlightened indigenes including native academicians. The
author has dug real deep and drawn freely and widely upon sources hidden away
in archives beyond the Dutch boundaries, and upon others hidden within often
unsuspected Dutch facilities. (ref DS-addedvalue.txt)