..BUT GIVE ME AMSTERDAM
a song chauvinistic Amsterdammers sing exuding their preference for their Dutch
capital above London and Paris, inspired the author, the American-born Amsterdamme, Jules B. Farber, to reflect on his own personal preference for this comsopolitan worldly village, as he calls it. This book reveals not only his love affair with Amsterdam, but he calls on onther Amsterdammers to tell about their slice of Amsterdam life.
Unlike many specialized books about Amsterdam, this one looks broadly at the local pattern, recounting tales of immigrants, history, busniess, finance, word trading, gateway, diamonds, the arts, foreign presence, tolerance and royal links with the Dutch capital through the centuries. Strange bedfellows are cited in their Amsterdam adventures, from the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a child prodigy to a despotic South American dictator rapidly assisted in his departure.
Few books have conserved this distinguished quality of providing personal insight to the appeal and uniqueness of Amsterdam life style and business climate over the past seven centuries.