First Published in 1976. This is Volume 3 of a colelction of essays in the Journal of Peasant Studies on the War. There is immense importance of the German Peasant War, both in itself as the first national peasant revolt in Germany and because of the influence of Engels work on the subject.

"A major book that scholars will want to study closely, both for its provocative treatment of the interaction of economic and social pressures with politics and ideology and for its many revisions of Marxist and non-Marxist interpretations... [Blickle's] book will influence scholarship for some time to come."-- Journal of Modern History.

2022 Reprint of the 1926 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The Peasant War in Germany was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It failed because of intense opposition from the aristocracy, who slaughtered up to 100,000 of the 300,000 poorly armed peasants and farmers. The survivors were fined and achieved few, if any, of their goals. Like the preceding Bundschuh movement and the Hussite Wars, the war consisted of a series of both economic and religious revolts in which peasants and farmers, often supported by Anabaptist clergy, took the lead. The War was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising prior to the French Revolution of 1789. The fighting was at its height in the middle of 1525. Engels analyzes the social and economic forces which brought about the peasant revolt of 1525 and its role in the Reformation. He portrays vividly the contrasting figures of Thomas Muenzer and Martin Luther, in relation to the revolutionary peasants and to the princes. The book has an enduring theoretical interest, as one of the earliest discussions of the revolutionary potential of the peasantry. Illustrated with drawings and woodcuts of the time.

This book, first published in 1979, presents a series of important investigations into the German Peasant War of 1525 – the last great peasant revolt and the first modern revolution. Previously under-studied by English-speaking historians, these essays provide a valuable analysis of the aims and extent of the Peasant War, and are representative of the various elements in the historiographical debate.

In the 1520s, a brief but savage war broke out in Germany when various insurgent groups rose to overthrow the power structure. The movement took as its emblem a peasant's shoe and the collective title of 'Bundschuh', and this became known as the Peasants' War (1524–1526) - although the rebel armies actually included as many townsmen, miners, disaffected knights and mercenary soldiers as rural peasants. The risings involved large armies of up to 18,000 men, and there were several major battles before the movement was put down with the utmost ferocity. This book details the armies, tactics, costume, weapons, personalities and events of this savage war.

The Protestant Reformation, begun with Martin Luther’s posting of The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517, rapidly escalated into an evangelical reform movement that transformed European Christianity. Less than a decade later, a massive rebellion of German commoners challenged the social and political order in what would prove to be the greatest popular rebellion in European history until the French Revolution. In this volume, Michael Baylor explores the relationship between these two momentous upheavals — one enduring, the other fleeting — and the centuries-long debate over whether and how they might be connected. A collection of period documents — including letters, sermons, pamphlets and illustrations — offer firsthand accounts from the reformers, rebels, and the institutions they sought to topple. Document headnotes, maps, a chronology of events, questions to consider, a selected bibliography, and an index are provided to enrich student understanding.