Vermeer's Hat Summary

Timothy Brook’s book, Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World, captures the increasing global interconnectedness during the seventeenth century by examining the artwork of the famous Dutch artist who lived during this time, and used his paintings as clues to determine the impact of the beginnings of globalization. Brook, a specialist in Chinese history, finds himself in Delft and comes across the remains of the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer and tracks down his thirty five paintings to get a sense of life during the seventeenth century. Timothy Brook’s central argument is that global consciousness began in the seventeenth century with the voyaging of Dutch traders, and the essence of the era, the new goods introduced to new markets, and the conflicts among

The seventeenth century is marked by a time of great exploration and exchange of goods, ideas, and people from around the globe, thus Brook referring to it as the beginning, or dawn, of what would become a global cooperation. According to Brook it was the luxury items introduced to Europe in the seventeenth century that helps explain and prove the “dawn of the global world.” The main example Brook provided, was china porcelain. He argues, that when the Dutch seized the Portuguese ships San Iago and Santa Carina in 1602, they brought back the cargo to Amsterdam where the china was discovered. Once this luxury item was discovered, it became in great demand all over Europe. Europeans got a taste for Asian luxury goods, and this is a reason why they sent ships to explore the seas. The Europeans were