The chair of the University of Miami’s history department unveiled her new book to a full crowd at Books & Books in Coral Gables on Wednesday evening.
Mary Lindemann’s newest publication, “The Merchant Republics,” discusses how Amsterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg developed as “communities of commerce” over the course of the 18th century. She analyzes the political structures, economic factors, histories and cultural standards of the three cities and how these characteristics set such economic powerhouses apart from each other and from the rest of the world.
For Lindemann, the writing process was anything but swift. “It always takes a long time for an academic book to be published and I was very, very lucky with my press, it only took two years,” she said.
The idea of the book, however, was around much longer than that. Lindemann started doing research on the book in 1997.
The Merchant Republics is Lindemann’s sixth major book. She also has titles such as “Patriots and Paupers” (named “An Outstanding Academic Book for 1990” by Choice Magazine) and “Health and Healing in Eighteenth-Century Germany” (winner of William H. Welch Medal book prize) under her belt.
Despite this, Lindemann always finds it exciting to publish a new book. “It’s still a thrill to get the first copy and open it up and to see what it really looks like,” she said.
Lindemann received her Ph.D. in History from the University of Cincinnati in 1980. She has received many major scholarly awards, including the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, among numerous other impressive academic accomplishments.
Lindemann has been a professor at UM since 2004. She became the chair of the history department in 2010. She will be teaching her History of Medicine course during the upcoming fall semester as part of the medical humanities minor at UM.
“The Merchant Republics: Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg, 1648-1790” is available for purchase from Cambridge University Press.