Hans Daalder, a professor of Dutch political history. Every week, in a packed lecture hall, which I remember as enormous, we hung on his every word in the mid-1980s. A distinguished gentleman, always impeccably dressed in a suit, his silver-gray hair neatly combed, he would recount, without a single note, the highs and lows of Dutch politics. He spoke of ‘smoke-filled rooms’ – a metaphor for politicians making significant decisions in secret meetings – with Willem Drees, Joseph Luns, Barend Biesheuvel and Joop den Uyl, as if he had been there himself. And perhaps he had. I never missed a lecture, listening in awe. My love for political science began with him.
