Strategic Affection?

Presents of many kinds, from household goods and a meal offered at one's table to verses written for a friend and practical help in hard times, have long been used to build and keep relationships between people. Thoen follows this practice in seventeenth-century Dutch society, tracing it through the lives of a broad group that includes teachers and craftsmen as well as poets and members of the urban ruling elite.

By placing these historical habits beside modern gift-giving, the book argues that calculation and genuine feeling have always been present in social bonds. The underlying system, it suggests, has stayed much the same over time; what has changed most is the way people talk about giving.