Coping with Life during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)

Sigrun Haude, Ph.D. (1993), is Walter C. Langsam Professor of European History at the University of Cincinnati. She has published on the Thirty Years’ War, gender, and Anabaptism, including In the Shadow of “Savage Wolves” (Humanities Press, 2000).

"She explores how people tried to survive the Thirty Years’ 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 Years’ 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 Haude’s book takes us into the maelstrom of the Thirty Years War, Europe’s most destructive conflict prior to the twentieth century, and reveals through a gripping narrative how ordinary – and some not so ordinary – 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 war’s impact, as well as the interaction between politics, military operations, and daily life."Professor Peter H. Wilson, University of Oxford"Sigrun Haude’s wide-ranging yet intimate study of the Thirty Years’ War broadens the focus beyond army camps, generals’ tents, and rulers’ 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"Haude’s study transforms our understanding of everyday life during the Thirty Years’ War. Full of rich detail and powerful personal testimonies, it reveals the coping strategies – both practical and psychological – 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, Haude’s broad-ranging study opens up crucial new avenues of research."Bridget Margaret Heal, University of St Andrews

• PrefaceList of IllustrationsAbbreviations1 Introduction: The Lay of the Land1 Focus – Historiography – Methodology2 The Thirty Years’ War, Abridged3 Places and Characters2 Experiences of War1 Fear and Vulnerability2 Instability and Disruption3 Poverty – Hunger – Dearth4 Violence and Human Concern: World Views Turned Upside Down3 Governmental Support: Hopes, Measures, and Realities1 Protection against Violence2 Stemming Deprivation and Disease3 Averting Spiritual Harm and Promoting a Decent Life4 Coping with the Experiences of War1 To Flee or Not to Flee2 News and Information3 Pragmatism, Resilience, and Initiative4 Connections, Communities, and Space5 Religion and Other Formative Forces6 Lifting Up the Spirit5 Conclusion: Life Beyond DevastationGlossaryBibliographyIndex