De jaren zestig als kruispunt in de histoire croisée van de Lage Landen

While comparative and transnational approaches are now dominant historiographical
trends, there is currently little interest in an integrated approach to the modern history
of Belgium and the Netherlands. This is all the more remarkable, since such an integral
approach to the history of the Low Countries prevailed until the 1970s, despite the fact that
Pieter Geyl’s ideological programme of a Greater Netherlands had fallen into disrepute.
Two recent publications suggest a departure from this trend and re-open the debate on
how to write an integrated history of the Low Countries, especially for the period after the
constitutional division of 1830. Reflecting on these publications, De Haan argues that there
are strong historical commonalities between the Belgium and the Netherlands, and that the
historiographical trend of increased attention to national specificities must be interpreted
as a reflection of the divided impact of the Sixties in the two countries.