Russell Shorto’s new book is an engaging history of England’s takeover of New York from the Dutch in 1664. In Taking Manhattan, Shorto argues that despite this momentous (if peaceful) transfer of power, the city would remain more Dutch than English. This is a provocative claim, as the author admits, but it’s one he defends with polemical zest, even going so far as to argue that it was the Dutch who gave us not only capitalism but also pluralism and tolerance. 

At the heart of Shorto’s book is the interaction of two fascinating men: the well-known Peter Stuyvesant (c 1610–72), director-general of New Netherland, and the rather less well-known Richard Nicholls (c 1624–72), the first English governor of the province of New York. In 1664, James, Duke of York (the future King James II) contracted Nicholls to conquer New Netherland for his brother King Charles II. His only advice to the military officer and colonial administrator was to accomplish his charge by relying on his ‘skill & dexterity’.

As it unfolded, Stuyvesant’s surrender of the city known at the time as New Amsterdam was the result of much enlightened diplomacy. Nicholls assured Stuyvesant and the Dutch that ‘his Majestie, being tender of the effusion of Christian blood’, would honour ‘every man his Estate, life, and liberty who shall