The Revolt of the Netherlands 1555-1609 is the first volume in Pieter Geyl’s magnificent - but sadly incomplete - History of the Dutch- Speaking Peoples. In this superb panorama of politics and war, Geyl tells the epic story of the Netherlander’ heroic struggle against the might of Spain, and of the rise and establishment of the Dutch Republic. As such, it remains the definitive account of one of the central episodes in early modem European history. But it also addresses issues which remain alive and important today: the relation between religious belief and political action, the complex questions of national identity, and the problems besetting a small country struggling to survive in a great-power world. Above all, it is suffused by the author’s abiding belief in the vitality of European civilisation.