Summer of Fire and Blood - by Lyndal Roper (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The German Peasants' War was the greatest popular uprising in Western Europe before the French Revolution. In 1524 and 1525, it swept across Germany with astonishing speed as well over a hundred thousand people massed in armed bands to demand a new and more egalitarian order. The peasants took control of vast areas of southern and middle Germany, torching and plundering the monasteries, convents, and castles that stood in their way. But they proved no match for the forces of the lords, who put down the revolt by slaying somewhere between seventy and a hundred thousand peasants in just over two months. In Summer of Blood, the first history of the German Peasants' War in a generation, historian Lyndal Roper exposes the far-reaching ramifications of this rebellion. Though the war's victors portrayed the uprising as naive and inchoate, Roper reveals a mass movement that sought to make good on the radical potential of the Protestant Reformation. By recovering what the people themselves felt and believed, Summer of Blood reconstructs the thrilling, tragic story of the peasants' fight to change the world"--

Book Synopsis

In this "extraordinary and brilliant book" (Helen Castor, author of She-Wolves), a prize-winning historian offers the definitive account of the sixteenth-century uprising that revolutionized Europe

The German Peasants' War was the greatest popular uprising in Western Europe before the French Revolution. In 1524 and 1525, it swept across Germany with astonishing speed as well over a hundred thousand people massed in armed bands to demand a new and more egalitarian order. The peasants took control of vast areas of southern and middle Germany, torching and plundering the monasteries, convents, and castles that stood in their way. But they proved no match for the forces of the lords, who put down the revolt by slaying somewhere between seventy and a hundred thousand peasants in just over two months.

In Summer of Fire and Blood, the first history of the German Peasants' War in a generation, historian Lyndal Roper exposes the far-reaching ramifications of this rebellion. Though the war's victors portrayed the uprising as naive and inchoate, Roper reveals a mass movement that sought to make good on the radical potential of the Protestant Reformation. By recovering what the people themselves felt and believed, Summer of Fire and Blood reconstructs the thrilling, tragic story of the peasants' fight to change the world.

Review Quotes

"As Roper demonstrates in her absorbing account of the Peasants' War, this outburst was more than a historical curiosity. The rebellion was an expression of a novel political sensibility and has informed every major European insurrection since; it can't be understood without considering the rebels' inner lives as well as their material circumstances."--London Review of Books

"Powerful." --Wall Street Journal

"A fine history of the German Peasants' War."

--Jacobin

A New York Times Book Review "Editors' Choice" Pick

"In Summer of Fire and Blood, Lyndal Roper has written a balanced, comprehensive survey of the uprising, gripping in its narrative and perceptive in its assessments, making it easily the most accessible study in English for a general readership."

--Financial Times

"Engrossing... One of the many merits of Summer of Fire and Blood is how Roper -- despite being the author of a luminous biography of Luther -- shifts the focus away from the face-off between Luther and Müntzer and back onto the peasants themselves."--Thomas Meaney, New York Times Book Review

"A rich, multidirectional history of an important historical period. And [Roper] writes like a dream. An exciting history book that's likely to be the go-to study for years to come."

--Library Journal (starred review)

"Capably recounting a forgotten episode in European history, Roper's book is full of lessons for modern readers."--Kirkus

"Summer of Fire and Blood brings the drama, violence, and contingency of the German Peasants' War to vivid life thanks to the unparalleled scholarly and writing skills of historian Roper. There is simply no more compelling or insightful account of this tumultuous mass uprising."--Joel F. Harrington, author of The Faithful Executioner

"Summer of Fire and Blood is an extraordinary and brilliant book. In Roper's evocatively beautiful, crystal-clear prose, the complex landscapes of early sixteenth-century Germany--physical, psychological, spiritual, social, and political--unfold before our eyes. She shows us the dreams and deeds that shaped the Peasants' War, the greatest popular revolt in western Europe before the French Revolution, and the ways in which that war shaped the future that followed. This is a profound account of an attempt to change the world, a sensational narrative that is both human and humane, illuminating, resonant, and unsettling."--Helen Castor, author of She-Wolves

"Beautifully and sensitively written, Summer of Fire and Blood tells the forgotten trauma of the sixteenth century--when thousands of ordinary people risked all they had in the hope of ushering in a new world. It takes the stories of our unlettered, peasant ancestors from the sidelines of history and, recentering them, restores their full humanity. And it warns us that the questions they posed are the very urgent questions that confront us again now."--Suzannah Lipscomb, author of Journey Through Tudor England

"Roper is a breathtaking storyteller. Her explosive reassessment of the Peasants' War is a theological, ecological, and social epic. She shows why the chaotic violence, symbolic arsenal of brotherhood, and maze of dreams and visions should matter to us in the twenty-first century."--Joanna Bourke, author of Fear

"This is a riveting account of a seismic event in German history that conveys a real sense of why so many ordinary people thought they could change the world. Lyndal Roper writes beautifully and displays a compassionate understanding for the protagonists on both sides of this complex and bloody struggle."--Peter Wilson, author of The Thirty Years War

About the Author

Lyndal Roper is Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford. Her previous books include Martin Luther and Witch Craze. She is a fellow of the British Academy, a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and a fellow of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. She lives in Oxford, South Wales, and Berlin.