Tulipomania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused

by Mike Dash

Book Overview

A vivid narration of the history of the tulip, from its origins on the barren, windswept steppes of central Asia to its place of honor in the lush imperial gardens of Constantinople, to its starring moment as the most coveted--and beautiful--commodity in Europe. In the 1630s, visitors to the prosperous trading cities of the Netherlands couldn't help but notice that thousands of normally sober, hardworking Dutch citizens were caught up in an extraordinary...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 060980765X
• ISBN13: 9780609807651
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

If you love tulips, read the book

I love tulips, so when I heard about this book I had to read it and I am glad that I did! The book focuses on the tulip craze in Holland, which took place between 1637-39. Tulips started out in China and Tibet they migrate to Turkey where they are cultivated during the "Golden Age" of the Ottoman Empire by Sullieman the Great at his Topkopi palace. From Turkey, they make their way aboard a ship to Holland. Carolus Clusius became the first botanist in the west to do an in depth study of the tulip. As professor of botany in Leiden, he greatly succeeds in his efforts to have the bulbs and seeds cultivated by friends of his. The tulips rare beauty takes Europe by storm; women put them in their cleavage in place of wearing necklaces. As the market increases for tulips all manner of people start to breed them as a `cash crop' and trading in them brokers similar to selling stocks. People from all occupations are selling their trade tools like weavers looms to raise money to breed tulip bulbs. All of this activity causes a feverish market to spark a significant increase in tulip prices. The market really spurs the first futures market, which really trades in promissory notes and not tulip bulbs since they have a definitive growing season and people want to trade in them all year round. These promissory notes allow the euphoria to get out of hand. The market matures to the point to where one growers holdings sells for enough money to support a family of four for over one half of their lifetime. People finally come to their economic senses, money supply and bulbs dry up, and after 2 years of the tulip market being driven at a feverish pitch, it finally goes bust. Of course this causes financial ruin for allot of people. The market stabilizes and Holland becomes the premier growing area for Tulips in the world today. This is a good book to learn about tulips during this time in history. It is an enjoyable easy read.

A remarkable corner of history

The tulip mania of the Dutch Golden Age has been recounted in a number of business, historical and botanical texts, but this was the first book I've read that pulled all the strands together in a concise, well-informed narrative.Mr. Dash's background as a historian surely helped him compile the anecdotes, facts, figures and personal histories that created this book, but his skill as a writer and storyteller turn a worthwhile and informative read into a downright entertaining one. A very successful look back at history that informs without sacrificing the style, fun and detail that the readers look for. Because of this, TULIPOMANIA stands out from the pack. Well done!

The history of the tulip is unquestionably fascinating

Whether you are a history or a plant buff, the history of the tulip is unquestionably a fascinating topic. If you are both a history and plant buff, like me, this topic is absolutely intoxicating. So deep and thought provoking are the moral and philosophical questions surrounding the tulip craze, it would seem nearly impossible to write a boring book on the subject. Nevertheless, I have read, or attempted to read, some books on this fascinating period of history that have nearly put me to sleep. Tulipomania by Mike Dash captures the essence of what makes the history of this plant so irresistible. Unlike a history book, he doesn?t get overly bogged down with dates and names. Unlike a horticulture or botany book, he presents some of the technical details of the plant without using technical terms the average reader wouldn?t appreciate. Rather, Mike Dash tells a story, which just happens to be about a plant, that spans over several hundred years. He paints a colorful picture of personalities, historical towns and, palaces that reads like a novel. However, unlike many novels, this book leaves the reader with many thought provoking questions. The reader is left pondering human social behavior, values, and the prostitution of nature. While enjoyable, this is anything but an empty, pass the time, light reading book. This book should be mandatory reading for all high school students. Mike Dash relays this fascinating saga so clearly; virtually everyone who reads this book will be forever touched. Our society could learn so much from the history of this plant, yet most American schools never even mention this fabulous saga. I know I will make sure my children read this book when they are older.

I'll Take Mine Sauteed!

This book was a pleasure to read. It is beautifully written, well-researched and it grabs your attention right away and holds it until the very end. I think Mr. Dash realized that even though the book is relatively short, most people would have been bored if the book had only stayed with a narrow focus on tulip varieties and the economic dynamics of the brief period during which the mania flourished. The author made a wise choice by going off into little interesting peripheral areas, such as the origins of the tulip in central Asia, the cultivation of the flower by the Ottoman Turks, and some aspects of social life in 17th century Holland. Did you know that when the flower was popular in Turkey some of the Ottoman soldiers went around with tulips embroidered on their underwear? Due to the Islamic prohibition concerning the artistic depiction of people and real life objects the embroidery of the flower had to be kept "undercover", so they placed it on the underwear! I don't want to give the impression that the book is a bunch of fluff. Mr. Dash never veers too far from the tulip mania and some of the best chapters in the book concern the botanical, economic and social reasons for the stratospheric heights tulip prices reached. Due to the way tulips reproduce it took a long time for new varieties (which were the most coveted) to be produced in quantity. Trading methods that we use today, such as buying on margin and trading in futures, also helped to fuel the craze, as did the tendency of the people involved to do their trading in taverns while consuming vast quantities of beer! Oh, by the way, I do want to explain the title of this review: In 1562 a shipment of cloth which had been sent from Istanbul arrived in Antwerp. The Flemish merchant who had ordered the cloth also noticed that the shipment contained some type of bulbs. They were tulip bulbs, but the merchant didn't know that. He assumed they were some type of Turkish onion, so he had most of them roasted and he ate them for supper, seasoned with some oil and vinegar!

Flower power -- 17th century style!

This is a fascinating view of the impact of trade on the development of culture, of the limitless capacity of humans to be petty and avaricious, of the naive and inventive efforts of gardeners who knew almost nothing about the biology of plants, and much, much more. Starting with the earliest interest in tulips in (and giving a wonderful overview of the cultural values of) ancient Turkey, the author tracks the rise in European interest, brings the tulip to the Netherlands, introduces us to the individual who all but invented gardening, explains how tulips evolved from intense red flowers to the brightly colored and varied forms they reached under Dutch cultivation, and shows how the social structure of the Netherlands (most particularly Amsterdam) set the stage for one of the great booms and busts in economic history. This ground-breaking work (no pun intended)explores this infamous event in new depth and reads like an adventure novel. Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in almost anything -- it's that eclectic in its narrative scope.