Extraordinary ordinary men. Biographies of Dutch post-war premiers reviewed

This article reviews three biographies of former Dutch prime ministers: wartime Prime Minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy (1885–1961), the first post-war Prime Minister WillemSchermerhorn (1894–1977) and the last volume of the biography of “vadertje” (daddy) Willem Drees (1886–1988). In this article, I will discuss the biographies of these three statesmen, all published in quick succession in 2014, as a case in point to investigate whether we can learn politicalor other lessons from former political leaders, and to reflect on thestatus quaestionisof political biographies as a genre. This article... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Oprel, Marieke
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
Verlag/Hrsg.: University of Groningen Press
Schlagwörter: Biography / Prime Minister / post-war
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29033595
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : https://ejlw.eu/article/view/31479

This article reviews three biographies of former Dutch prime ministers: wartime Prime Minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy (1885–1961), the first post-war Prime Minister WillemSchermerhorn (1894–1977) and the last volume of the biography of “vadertje” (daddy) Willem Drees (1886–1988). In this article, I will discuss the biographies of these three statesmen, all published in quick succession in 2014, as a case in point to investigate whether we can learn politicalor other lessons from former political leaders, and to reflect on thestatus quaestionisof political biographies as a genre. This article was submitted to the European Journal of Life Writing on December 24th 2015 and published on June 13th 2016.