‘De eeuw van Van der Palm!’ Publieke welsprekendheid en de politieke cultuur van de Restauratie in Nederland

Johannes Henricus van der Palm (1763-1840) was the most famous orator of his age in the Netherlands. He was educated as a Protestant minister, but the revolutionary movements of the 1780s and 1790s launched him into politics and he became Minister of National Education. His extreme tendency to shy away from public conflicts made him less fit for politics and he returned to academia as a professor of oriental languages and sacred rhetoric, after which he reached the pinnacle of fame by speaking about the virtues of peace and harmony at almost every important public occasion. He personified the... Mehr ...