... several languages.

The author Geert Mak was born in Vlaardingen on December 4, 1946 as the son of a Dutch Reformed minister. He grew up in Friesland, in the north of Holland, read law and sociology at the Free University and the University of Amsterdam, and served as an assistant to the parliamentary fraction of the Pacifist Socialist Party. Between 1972 and 1975 he taught constitutional law at Utrecht University, and from 1975 to 1985 he served as an editor at the weekly De Groene Amsterdammer, focusing on immigration and urban issues. From 1985 on he was city editor of NRC/Handelsblad and foreign editor for VPRO Radio, reporting from the United States, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union.

In 1985 Mak published two books: The Amsterdam Dream, devoted to ‘the Amsterdam problem’, and – in collaboration with the management philosopher Paul Kuypers – Aangeschoten wild, which focused on the country’s prevailing management culture. During this period he wrote numerous articles and essays on city government and urban issues. In 1990 Mak co-founded the Fonds voor Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten, which supports special journalistic projects, and the magazine Atlas, devoted to literary non-fiction. His journalistic and historical eye-witness accounts appeared in Reportages uit Nederland (Holland reporting, 1991) and Ooggetuigen van de wereldgeschiedenis (Eye-witnesses to world history, 1998).

In 1992 Mak published De engel van Amsterdam (The angel of Amsterdam), which combines a dissection of the Dutch capital with a series of personal portraits. That collection was followed by Een kleine geschiedenis van Amsterdam (A brief history of Amsterdam, 1995), which was well received and earned the author a nomination for the Gouden Uil in 1996. This popular account of the city, now also available in an illustrated edition, has been translated into German, Czech, Hungarian and English (Harvard University Press). A Russian translation and Chinese translation are in preparation. Mak reached a wider readership with Hoe God verdween uit Jorwerd (1996), a classic account of the headlong decline of farming life in Europe. It was awarded the Henriëtte Roland Holst Prize in 1999, and has been translated into German, French and English. A monograph entitled Het Stadspaleis followed in 1997, a vivid history of the Royal Palace on Dam Square, and in 1998 he wrote his last Book Week Essay, ‘Het ontsnapte land’, an examination of the Dutch landscape, past and present. In the summer of 2000, at the request of RVU television, Gert Mak travelled in the footsteps of two students – Jacob van Lennep and Dirk van Hogendorp – who wrote a lively travelogue of their 1823 peregrinations around Holland. To mark the screening of Mak’s trip, a new edition of Van Lennep’s account was published.

Geert Mak’s most popular book appeared in 1999: De eeuw van mijn vader (My father’s century), a history of Holland in the twentieth century. The work is closely bound up with his own family history, reconstructed on the basis of letters, postcards, interviews and other material. It has sold over half a million copies and has been translated into German and Hungarian; a Danish and Chinese translation are in preparation. An illustrated edition is available in Spring 2007.

To mark the end of the millennium, in 1999 Mak criss-crossed Europe for NRC Handelsblad, publishing a daily front-page column. This day-to-day chronicle of the continent and the century was enhanced by the author’s observations and conversations with eye witnesses. I

In 2004 Geert Mak’s In Europa appeared: another overwhelming success, selling 350,000 copies. The translations included German (2005), Hungarian (2005), Italian (2006), Spanish (2006), French (2007), English (2007), Polish (2007), Turkish (2008), Chinese (2008), Japanese (2008) and Norwegian (2008). The U.S. version will be published in July 2007 by Pantheon. In Europa will be filmed and broadcasted in a series of documentaries in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

In 2004, following the murder of Theo van Gogh, Mak published two pamphlets: Gedoemd tot kwetsbaarheid (Doomed to vulnerability), published in Germany in 2005 (Suhrkamp), and a reply to his critics entitled Nagekomen flessenpost (Delayed message in a bottle). He was highly critical of what he referred to as ‘dealers in fear’, maintaining that the crisis in Dutch society was not simply a problem involving established and ‘new’ citizens, but a far more complex issue. He urged all those involved to practice moderation and restraint, and issued a heartfelt plea for the preservation of such traditional Dutch values as freedom, openness and tolerance. Sadly, these views met with little response at the time.

Mak has been invited to write the National Book Week Gift for 2007.

From 2000 to 2003 Geert Mak taught at the University of Amsterdam, as extraordinary professor of urban affairs on behalf of the city of Amsterdam. In that capacity he regularly lectured at various venues throughout the city, once on the occasion of Princess Maximá’s introduction to Amsterdam. His 2001 oration, published as ‘De goede stad’ (The good city), was devoted to the Amsterdammers’ own vision of their city down through the ages. In 2002 Geert Mak received the IJ Prize, in recognition of his endeavours on behalf of the city. This oration will be published in Spring 2007 by Atlas together with travel notes and other dissertations entitled ‘De goede stad’.

On two occasions Dutch readers awarded Mak the Public Prize for the best book of the year: in 2000 for ‘De eeuw van mijn vader’ and in 2004 for ‘In Europa’. During this period he was twice named ‘historian of the year’, while in 2004 he received an honorary degree from the Open University in Heerlen for his services to the field of history.

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