Joyce Carol Oates in a recent review in the New Yorker preferred to speak of displaced persons rather than expatriates, immigrants, or refugees. Indeed the word would fit those who haunt Linden's new book, Experiencing Exile: Huguenots refugees in the Dutch Republic, 1680–1700. The Huguenots who fled France at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes for different areas of the old and the new world were indeed expatriates who always hoped to return to their land. They were not proper immigrants, but only, they hoped, temporary guests in foreign lands. They certainly were refugees, most of them, leaving France under the duress of attrition and under physical and mental persecution when Louvois, gifted general that he was, gained the ear of the King as Secretary of State and, to obtain conversions to the Catholic Church, used war methods in peace on his compatriots.

David van der Linden limits the scope of his research to the United Provinces, a welcoming terrain since William III had already been at war with Louis XIV, and was hoping to gain military learning from the soldiers of Turenne and economic advantages from the skilled refugees. Besides, Holland had already welcomed refugees from England, some of whom had eventually left for America.

The book is divided into three parts: the first chapter concentrates on the reasons for leaving France: religious affiliation which was punished by destruction of houses of worship, income attrition, and eventually by physical brutality until they recanted, called the dragonnades. Then those who chose to emigrate had to deal with the practical and psychological issues of leaving family and possessions, and of finding a passage to another land. Chapter 2 deals with the economic difficulties of immigrants seeking employment in a new land: textile merchants, booksellers, printers, and ministers found that the job market, first welcoming, soon dried up under the flood of immigrants that taxed the resources and generosity of their hosts and well-wishers. Many would have to live lives on the margin, despite the relief given by Walloon churches. Emigration was therefore both a heartsore and a danger to one's economic solvency, and consequently to one's health.

The second part of the book deals with faith, the purpose of the emigration. Ministers usually found a church and a meagre sustenance. Despite their desire to teach expository sermons on the Calvinist doctrine, or stern attacks on the Bishop of Rome like Elie Benoit, they soon found that fire and brimstone sermons did not help their starving flock who mostly needed comforting. They had to answer the “Why us? Why our church?” questions. Justifications varied from “the wrath of God against Pharisaic sinners” to “God's test on the faithful” and the reassuring assertion that they would return to France in glory. Ironically, fear of informers would sometimes lead to submitting new refugees to some sort of inquisition about their Calvinist orthodoxy. Resentment on both sides of the border arose, from those who felt abandoned in the midst of danger and from those who despised the fainthearted who did not flee. Hearing about the great risks people incurred by participating in secret assemblies in the homeland, ministers came to moderate their criticisms. To make sermons more interesting, Chappuzeau tried to persuade ministers, some of whom had had very little training in villages, to use some of the techniques of the theater. Finally, bodily survival dominated concerns of faith and the hope for spiritual freedom.

The third part deals with memories in exile: starting from individual letters and memoirs, Linden shows how they shaped part of the collective narratives, designed to create a history of Protestantism in France, also based on official records. Testimonies of cruelty, struggle, help, and cross-confessional friendships give a face to what could have been a legal and dry account. Linden gives a few vivid examples of horrors and barbarity, of momentary recantations and the guilt thereafter, and of youth heroism. He is careful to mention the inevitable gaps in the information provided, and the bias of ministers who chose to write while their emotions were still raw. Some of the failings of the refugees tend to be passed over. The remonstrations of the king and the pope, when properly informed, tend to be mentioned slightly. Different ministers approached the subject differently and with different talents: Jurieu wrote a martyrology, while Elie Benoit concentrated on the legal train that timed the persecution. The narratives had to be edited and made interesting to the reader, sometimes taking the form of saynètes. The purpose was to persuade, and hold a mirror up to the torturers, in the hope to move their hearts.

The book is well written with many examples, references, charts, and illustrations. It tends to emphasize the hardships, rather than the successes, of the refugees, some of whom followed William III into England: army officers and marshals, or even the architect Daniel Marot who worked on Hampton Court. But the tragic story needs to be retold periodically, just like that of the Jews and the Armenians, and David van der Linden has successfully shown both the cruelty and the resilience of the human soul.