Toen de gezaghebbende kooplieden van de stad Amsterdam op 2 februari 1653 toestemming gaven op het eiland Manhattan een gerechtshof in te stellen, kwam de ontwikkeling van Nieuw Amsterdam als een aparte gemeenschap op gang. Stevige handelsverdragen en nauwe banden op kerkelijk terrein zorgden voor een duurzaam contact tussen de twee steden, ook na de beëindiging van het Hollandse bewind in 1664. Tot in de beginjaren van de 19e eeuw was Amsterdam dominant en overtrof het New York in grootte, prestige, rijkdom en macht. In de loop van de 19e eeuw kwam hier langzaam verandering in, toen New York door de immigratie groeide en nieuwe impulsen kreeg, terwijl het inwonersaantal van Amsterdam stabiliseerde. Deze bundel essays behandelt de politieke, economische, godsdienstige en intellectuele betrekkingen tussen twee toonaangevende steden. Zij vormen een onderzoek naar de interacties op alle mogelijke verschillende terreinen gedurende de continue uitwisseling tussen beide steden.

The Dutch presence in North America has been best preserved in the two largest denominations, the Reformed Church and Christian Reformed Church. But outside these denominations seven more developed over time, of which some are hardly visible for outsiders, and also non-protestant groups tried to stay together. The eighteen essays in this volume describe the ways in which small groups of Dutch immigrants made efforts to maintain their identities in the United States and Canada between 1800 and 2000. Until now, many of those groups had never been objects of academic research. In the essays presented here, the Dutch, American, and Canadian authors zoom in on the connections of these groups with the Netherlands, with other Dutch-Americans, and other ethnic groups. All of them faced the issues of language and education. An exclusivist worldview, strong leadership, local organizations and national networks helped best to preserve identities, but did not preclude the influence of processes of assimilation and modernization. Among the groups covered here are Roman Catholics, Pentecostals, and Social Democrats, while the Protestants spread out in the True Reformed Dutch Church, the Netherlands Reformed Congregations, the Free Reformed Churches, the Protestant Reformed Churches, and the Canadian Reformed Churches. Additional presentations analyze the social capital structure of immigrant groups, family life, labor unions, and business ventures. All these factors contributed to the longevity of these morsels in the melting pot of North America.