The contested modernisation of the Netherlands. An introduction to the series ‘Techniek in Nederland in de twintigste eeuw’History is a discipline that is divided up into different specialist areas. The realisation of the seven-volume series entitled ‘Technology in the Netherlands in the Twentieth Century’ could be used to support this claim. However, the greatest achievement of the series is that it has written a new history of the Netherlands from the viewpoint of technology. It is a history of technology in which technology itself is not the key issue. The series explores a number of hypotheses about the modernisation of the Netherlands. For example, the relationship between the development of technology and scaling-up, the emergence of the consumer society, and the role of engineers in the evolving intervention state. The series can be viewed as an invitation for future cooperation among historians.