Finished this book today. Lessons learned, the Dutch started the bootstrap of American culture by colonizing Manhattan, and aren't given enough credit for it. Peter Stuyvesant was not much loved in the colony for good reason. Adrian Vanderdonk was the visionary. We tend to think of colonization of the US as starting with the British, but our legacy also comes from the Netherlands. Growing up in Flushing I was aware of the Dutch presence. They had farms, houses and civic buildings dating back to the 1600s all around our neighborhood. The Flushing Remonstrance was prior art for the Bill of Rights. #