My current research project is titled Associational Mania. The Struggle for Recognition and the Transformation of Politics, 1820-1890. I am investigating the remarkable enthusiasm for founding new organizations in the nineteenth-century, and its relation to the process of democratisation from the perspective of the 'founders' themselves. For more on this project, click here (in Dutch). I am working on this project as a post doc at the history department of  Leiden University, where I also work as an assistant professor in Modern History. During 2007-2008 I was appointed a fellow at the Charles Warren Center of Harvard University. While there, I have worked on the American 'associational mania', as well as discussed the broader theme of the interaction of social movements and politics. Find here the first results of my work in progress (pdf).


De afschaffers. Publieke opinie, organisatie en politiek in Nederland 1840-1880 is now available. The title translates The Abolitionists. Public opinion, organization and politics in the Netherlands, 1840-1880. An English Summary is available in pdf (it follows after the table of contents).



De Afschaffers

More information here (in Dutch, with Order Form for University Libraries)



The book is published by publishing house Wereldbibliotheek in Amsterdam, the first of a series of books of the Research Project
Parliamentary and Partisan Culture. Political Culture and View of Politics in the Netherlands and (Western) Europe, 19th and 20th Centuries. This is a PIONIER-project (an abbreviation in Dutch for Personal Impulse for Research Groups with New Ideas for Excellent Research) of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. More on this research project is to be found here (in English) and here (in Dutch).