Through a wide variety of key documents—most of which appear in English for the first time here—this sourcebook reveals the origins, significance, and consequences of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), the first great, and catastrophic, pan-European conflict. Headnotes introduce each selection, and a general introduction provides both a brief history of the war and a discussion of its causes. An index, suggestions for further reading, a map, and several examples of seventeenth-century artwork are included.

"There is, to my knowledge, no other book of this sort in English that competes in giving a detailed account of the Thirty Years War. Helfferich has done a remarkable job in assembling texts that convey the sweep of the war, the religious and constitutional questions involved, the international involvement of especially Denmark, Sweden, and France, and the turbulent misery that the war produced, especially in the Holy Roman Empire. I do not know of a better representation of what the Peace of Westphalia (the two treaties, at Osnabrück and Münster) actually settled.

"Helfferich has done a fine job of accurately translating from German and other languages . . . and she has chosen rather large documents for inclusion instead of snipping out small paragraphs from many more documents. One thus has a chance to settle into an author's main points and to appreciate his or her style and point of view."
—Erik Midelfort, University of Virginia