Description

In this remarkable and insightful book, acclaimed historian Lyndal Roper presents the definitive account of the German Peasants’ War, the largest popular uprising in Western Europe before the French Revolution. Between 1524 and 1525, this sweeping revolt spread rapidly across Germany, with over one hundred thousand peasants forming armed groups to demand a more just and equal society. Seizing control of vast regions in southern and central Germany, the rebels burned and looted monasteries, convents, and castles. However, they ultimately stood no chance against the military forces of the ruling elite, who crushed the movement with brutal efficiency, killing between seventy and one hundred thousand peasants in a matter of weeks.

In *Summer of Fire and Blood*, the first major history of the German Peasants’ War in a generation, Roper uncovers the lasting impact of this rebellion. While those in power dismissed the uprising as chaotic and misguided, she reveals a powerful mass movement that sought to fulfill the radical promises of the Protestant Reformation. Through a vivid reconstruction of events and an exploration of what the rebels themselves believed, *Summer of Fire and Blood* brings to life the gripping and tragic struggle of the peasants as they fought to reshape their world.