Books by the Dutch writer and journalist Geert Mack (b. 1946) on the history of the Netherlands, Amsterdam and Europe are extremely popular in his homeland and abroad. He is the recipient of numerous literary prizes and has twice been named "Historian of the Year" in the Netherlands. The main advantage of his small book “The Netherlands. The whim of history" lies in a very accurate and deep transmission of the historical identity of the Dutch. The author did not set himself the task of giving a chronologically and event-exhaustive picture of the history of the country, but tried to vividly and fascinatingly tell about the past of the “low lands”. Mack is often called the "history teacher" everyone dreams of. His book is a wonderful read for anyone who wants not only to get an idea of the main stages of the centuries-old history of this region (starting with the presence of the Romans here), but also to feel the uniqueness of the appearance and culture of a largely man-made country, conquered by people from the sea, which gave the world great sailors, artists, philosophers, a country that had its say in the history of European civilization. This is Geert Mack's first book translated into Russian.