De Moderne Tijd - Current Issue

The Epidemiological Transition in Amsterdam: Disease, Death, and Social Inequality in a Changing City (1850–1940)

This study examines the epidemiological transition in Amsterdam between 1850 and 1940, highlighting a shift from high mortality due to infectious diseases to lower mortality dominated by chronic conditions. By combining quantitative mortality data with qualitative family histories, it reveals how structural transformations in health and longevity intersected with unequal living conditions and personal lived experiences of disease and death. It underscores the importance of integrating macro-level trends and micro-level narratives to understand how medical progress and public health improvements were unevenly distributed and how changing patterns of illness and mortality reshaped daily life in Amsterdam.

Sensation, social resentment and socialism. ‘Limping Abe’ and De Amsterdamsche Lantaarn

During the last decade of the nineteenth century Abraham Cornelisse edited and sold a radical newspaper called De Amsterdamsche Lantaarn in the Dutch capital’s city centre. The crippled socialist and his partners in crime found an enthusiastic public that immersed itself in their indignant accusations and sensationalist news stories drawn directly from the slums, attracting attention both in print and on the streets of Amsterdam. Both the Lantaarn’s stories and peddling activities created upheaval and provoked the authorities to respond. In this way, they outplayed Amsterdam’s officials and gained a disproportionate amount of attention for their fiery political message.

Amsterdam as a pedagogical narrative space in Kees de jongen by Theo Thijssen (1923) and Eva by Carry van Bruggen (1927)

The autobiographical novels Kees de jongen (1923) by Theo Thijssen and Eva (1927) by Carry van Bruggen are set against the backdrop of Amsterdam’s developing urban space around 1900. Since both literary authors were actively involved in primary education at the time, it should come as no surprise that their literary texts pay striking attention to the role of school and learning. Despite the obvious differences between the novels, they both conceive of urban space as a pedagogical space, serving the learning and bildung of the main character. This article examines how that pedagogical space is shaped narratively, as part of a broader story space, and what kinds of meanings and evaluations are assigned to it.

Bringing in the outside world. Russians in the Amsterdam cubbyhole of Etty Hillesum

Between 1937 and 1943, the Dutch diarist and spiritual philosopher Etty Hillesum (1914-1943) lived in a small room on the second floor of Gabriël Metsustraat 6, Amsterdam. In her diary, she presents an account of what she observes from her window, which overlooked the current Museum Square. But she also reports of another “outside world” that is brought in: that of the Russian authors whose portraits adorn her room. Posing against the background of this decorated wall, Hillesum seems to perform a little-known part of her identity. This article offers a combined analysis of the diary and photo portraits.