Rural Society and the Search for Order in Early Modern Germany

by Thomas Robisheaux

Sixteenth-century Europeans launched a struggle for order with an intensity and urgency that finds no parallels in modern European history. For the rural societies of Germany, the early sixteenth century brought massive upheavals that eroded the basis of social, political, economic, and religious life. In this probing study of village life, based on rich manuscript sources from the Old County of Hohenlohe, the author seeks to understand how petty German princes, Lutheran pastors, and villagers struggled to create order out of their confusing world. He shows that the foundations for social stability so evident in Germany after 1648 were laid in the forgotten era of German history, in the years after the early Reformation and before the Thirty Years' War.

316 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 1989

About the author

Thomas Robisheaux, a professor of history at Duke University, is the author of Rural Society and the Search for Order in Early Modern Germany. He lives in Durham, North Carolina."

Reviews

[Warren Bittner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful into how early modern German society developed. It also gives an interesting presentation of what life was like in the Thirty Years War.