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Coping with Life during the Thirty Yearsâ War (1618-1648)
Series: - Studies in Central European Histories, Volume: 69
Author:
At its core, Coping with Life during the Thirty Yearsâ War (1618â1648) explores how people tried to survive the Thirty Yearsâ War, on what resources they drew, and how they attempted to make sense of it. A rich tapestry of stories brings to light contemporariesâ trauma as well as women and menâs unrelenting initiatives to stem the warâs negative consequences. Through these close-ups, Sigrun Haude shows that experiences during the Thirty Yearsâ War were much more diverse and often more perplexing than a straightforward story line of violence and destruction can capture. Life during the Thirty Yearsâ War was not a homogenous vale of gloom and doom, but a multifaceted story that was often heartbreaking, yet, at times, also uplifting.
Sigrun Haude, Ph.D. (1993), is Walter C. Langsam Professor of European History at the University of Cincinnati. She has published on the Thirty Yearsâ War, gender, and Anabaptism, including In the Shadow of âSavage Wolvesâ (Humanities Press, 2000).
"She explores how people tried to survive the Thirty Yearsâ War; on what resources they drew to endure violence, hunger, loss, and disease; and how they tried to make sense of a conflict that appeared ever more meaningless [...] Drawing on an abundance of sources, Haude has provided a well-researched study of the human experience of the Thirty Yearsâ War."
---- Peter Thaler, in: German Studies Review (May 2023) 46 (2): pp.317-318
"Sigrun Haude's exciting new book revises our view of wartime experiences. Her meticulous archival research reveals a far broader range of reactions and coping strategies than previous histories have offered. Her sparkling prose vividly catches the dilemmas of life in a war-torn world but also uncovers surprisingly positive moments and unexpected decisions. Simply put, she sets a new standard for the historical understanding of war in early modern times."
Professor Mary Lindemann, University of Miami
"Haude's superb study expands our understanding of the Thirty Years War to include the full range of human experiences at the ground level. Her archivally rich analysis includes not just predictable accounts of human cruelty and suffering, but also of ingenuity and resilience. Her important findings challenge our most basic ideas about religious strife and coexistence during this especially violent phase of the early modern era."
Professor Joel F. Harrington, Vanderbilt University
"Sigrun Haudeâs book takes us into the maelstrom of the Thirty Years War, Europeâs most destructive conflict prior to the twentieth century, and reveals through a gripping narrative how ordinary â and some not so ordinary â people faced death, violence, disease, fear and want, many with fatalistic resignation, but equally many others with pragmatism and ingenuity. From this we gain a more rounded and detailed understanding of the warâs impact, as well as the interaction between politics, military operations, and daily life."
Professor Peter H. Wilson, University of Oxford
"Sigrun Haudeâs wide-ranging yet intimate study of the Thirty Yearsâ War broadens the focus beyond army camps, generalsâ tents, and rulersâ palaces to encompass convents and monasteries, pest-houses, village churches, and urban workshops. Much that made the war so devastating will seem strikingly familiar, with fleeing migrants blamed for spreading disease and governments unable to relieve poverty and suffering, but so will the means women and men found to cope: conversation, community, music, shared food, family rituals."
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
"Haudeâs study transforms our understanding of everyday life during the Thirty Yearsâ War. Full of rich detail and powerful personal testimonies, it reveals the coping strategies â both practical and psychological â that seventeenth-century women and men adopted in the face of death and destruction. In asking how communities and individuals endured this most destructive of pre-modern European wars, Haudeâs broad-ranging study opens up crucial new avenues of research."
Bridget Margaret Heal, University of St Andrews
---- Peter Thaler, in: German Studies Review (May 2023) 46 (2): pp.317-318
"Sigrun Haude's exciting new book revises our view of wartime experiences. Her meticulous archival research reveals a far broader range of reactions and coping strategies than previous histories have offered. Her sparkling prose vividly catches the dilemmas of life in a war-torn world but also uncovers surprisingly positive moments and unexpected decisions. Simply put, she sets a new standard for the historical understanding of war in early modern times."
Professor Mary Lindemann, University of Miami
"Haude's superb study expands our understanding of the Thirty Years War to include the full range of human experiences at the ground level. Her archivally rich analysis includes not just predictable accounts of human cruelty and suffering, but also of ingenuity and resilience. Her important findings challenge our most basic ideas about religious strife and coexistence during this especially violent phase of the early modern era."
Professor Joel F. Harrington, Vanderbilt University
"Sigrun Haudeâs book takes us into the maelstrom of the Thirty Years War, Europeâs most destructive conflict prior to the twentieth century, and reveals through a gripping narrative how ordinary â and some not so ordinary â people faced death, violence, disease, fear and want, many with fatalistic resignation, but equally many others with pragmatism and ingenuity. From this we gain a more rounded and detailed understanding of the warâs impact, as well as the interaction between politics, military operations, and daily life."
Professor Peter H. Wilson, University of Oxford
"Sigrun Haudeâs wide-ranging yet intimate study of the Thirty Yearsâ War broadens the focus beyond army camps, generalsâ tents, and rulersâ palaces to encompass convents and monasteries, pest-houses, village churches, and urban workshops. Much that made the war so devastating will seem strikingly familiar, with fleeing migrants blamed for spreading disease and governments unable to relieve poverty and suffering, but so will the means women and men found to cope: conversation, community, music, shared food, family rituals."
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
"Haudeâs study transforms our understanding of everyday life during the Thirty Yearsâ War. Full of rich detail and powerful personal testimonies, it reveals the coping strategies â both practical and psychological â that seventeenth-century women and men adopted in the face of death and destruction. In asking how communities and individuals endured this most destructive of pre-modern European wars, Haudeâs broad-ranging study opens up crucial new avenues of research."
Bridget Margaret Heal, University of St Andrews
Preface
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
1 Introduction: The Lay of the Land
â1âFocus â Historiography â Methodology
â2âThe Thirty Yearsâ War, Abridged
â3âPlaces and Characters
2 Experiences of War
â1âFear and Vulnerability
â2âInstability and Disruption
â3âPoverty â Hunger â Dearth
â4âViolence and Human Concern: World Views Turned Upside Down
3 Governmental Support: Hopes, Measures, and Realities
â1âProtection against Violence
â2âStemming Deprivation and Disease
â3âAverting Spiritual Harm and Promoting a Decent Life
4 Coping with the Experiences of War
â1âTo Flee or Not to Flee
â2âNews and Information
â3âPragmatism, Resilience, and Initiative
â4âConnections, Communities, and Space
â5âReligion and Other Formative Forces
â6âLifting Up the Spirit
5 Conclusion: Life Beyond Devastation
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
1 Introduction: The Lay of the Land
â1âFocus â Historiography â Methodology
â2âThe Thirty Yearsâ War, Abridged
â3âPlaces and Characters
2 Experiences of War
â1âFear and Vulnerability
â2âInstability and Disruption
â3âPoverty â Hunger â Dearth
â4âViolence and Human Concern: World Views Turned Upside Down
3 Governmental Support: Hopes, Measures, and Realities
â1âProtection against Violence
â2âStemming Deprivation and Disease
â3âAverting Spiritual Harm and Promoting a Decent Life
4 Coping with the Experiences of War
â1âTo Flee or Not to Flee
â2âNews and Information
â3âPragmatism, Resilience, and Initiative
â4âConnections, Communities, and Space
â5âReligion and Other Formative Forces
â6âLifting Up the Spirit
5 Conclusion: Life Beyond Devastation
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
All interested in the history of Early Modern Europe, the Thirty Yearsâ War and society, home and exile, poverty and epidemics, and conflict and coexistence in the seventeenth century.