Something from the contents of this book.
'Preface
Writing of Pieter Geyl, Hermann von der Dunk remarks, 'life meant self-expression through an encounter with the past'. The study of historical writing affords the contemporary observer an entrée into both the private world of the historian and into the preoccupations of his periode. Sometimes the historical enterprises discussed in this volume enjoyed official sponsorship and therefore served particular political ends; in other cases the motives for writing were more personal. Yet the works of the gifted amateur and the academic historian, no less than those of the official historiographer, betray the political anxieties and intellectual priorities of their time.
It was therefore fitting that the British and Dutch historians, meeting on this eight occasion, should take the opportunity to look in Clio's mirror.

The Departments of History at the Vrije Universiteit and the Universiteit van Amsterdam kindly sponsored this Conference and thanks are due to them and, in particular, to Gerrit Schutte and Hans Blom for its smooth organization. We wish to acknowledge the wholehearted support the Conference received on this occasion,
as ion the past, from the Dutch Ministry of Education. We are indebted to the College van Bestuur of the Vrije Universiteit for their hospitality. Thanks to the corporation of Amsterdam the Conference could be included in the congenial setting of the city's Historical Museum. A very special debt of gratitudeitude is due to the trustees of the Prins Bernhard Fonds whose Fiancial support made possible this publication.

September 1984 A.C.D.
C.A.T.'.