Arie van Deursen

Arie Theodorus van Deursen (23 June 1931 – 21 November 2011) was a Dutch historian whose focus was the early modern period. He was Professor Emeritus of History at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. He was a specialist in Dutch history of the 16th and 17th century.
Career.
Arie van Deursen was born at Groningen. He was a prolific author with a refined style. He has written several books about daily life in the Dutch Golden Age, religious controversies in the 16th and 17th century (Jacobus Arminius versus Franciscus Gomarus) and the political situation of that period; he wrote biographies of William the Silent and Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, a history of the Vrije Universiteit, a history of the Netherlands (1555–1702), a biography of Michiel de Ruyter and several volumes of collected essays.
As an orthodox Protestant Christian, Van Deursen was heavily involved in polemics about the history of secularization and its consequences. In his Huizinga Lecture, "Huizinga en de geest der eeuw" (Huizinga and the spirit of the age) Van Deursen compared the critical evaluation of the secularization by Isaäc da Costa and Johan Huizinga. Van Deursen died in Oegstgeest on 21 November 2011, aged 80.
He was member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.