Book Recommendations - Thirty Years War

[Hegel's Bagels]

To all my brothers from another mother -

I was wondering if any of you historians could recommend reading on the Thirty Years War. I'm an art history student so I wasn't quite sure where to begin. I've already read Kenneth Setton's Venice, Austria, and the Turks, which gives some background on the war, however I'm looking for something more comprehensive.

Thanks

Liever Turks dan Paaps!!

[Sigaba]

My understanding is that the standard work on the Thirty Years' War is now Peter H. Wilson's The Thirty Years' War: Europe's Tragedy (2009). I've not yet spent a lot of time with my copy, but I found the first edition of Wilson's The Holy Roman Empire, 1495-1806 compelling.

Also, I understand that many fora and threads on this BB are informal. I accept and appreciate the fact many of you are decompressing from the rigors of the application process, and that you're entering the home stretch of your days as undergraduates.

At the same time, I respectfully ask each of you to consider the competitive advantages of using every opportunity to incorporate the historical profession's best practices into even the most informal conversations about history between now and the time you pass your qualifying exams--if not beyond.

Snarkfests can be a lot of fun. Many of you are quite witty and your playfulness reflects your intellectual skills and potential. Your senses of humor will serve you well. That being said, please remember that professors will be taking and comparing notes, even when they're laughing along with you--or letting you think that they are laughing with you.

The contents of these notes will be disclosed to you with great subtlety. Even when professors are jumping on your skull during office hours or they're bouncing you off the walls in their comments for written assignments and oral presentations, it is exceedingly unlikely that they're going to tell you precisely what you're doing wrong until after you've figured it out for yourself and started the process of taking corrective actions. (And then, it will be on to the next lesson.)

Moreover, because of the complexity of many historigraphical debates, there are hot-button words and phrases that can see you going from the life of the party to professor's chew toy in the blink of an eye. Even if you give as good as you get in such instances, you're still going to have bite marks that can take a long time to heal. (Or so I've heard.)

Finally, I have learned that one dismisses the complexities of anything related to German history as "inane" or "convoluted" at one's own peril.

My $0.02.

[Hegel's Bagels]

Thanks Sigaba for the recommendation. I had only found texts that were at least 30 years old and I'm looking forward to reading this over the summer.

As for the rest of your comment, I'm not sure how to interpret it. I apologize if my post came across as facetious; that certainly was not my intention. I was only using humor to alleviate my discomfort from interloping in the history forum. Finally, I'm not sure what part of my post suggested that I consider German history 'inane' or 'convoluted.' There is remarkably little about the Thirty Years War in art historical scholarship and I am only trying to find other avenues to learn more. In any case, I'm glad for the recommendation. Thanks again.

[Nordicllama]

Sigaba was referring to a post I made earlier. I did not mean to be offensive so I took the liberty of removing my post.

[Hegel's Bagels]

Sigaba was referring to a post I made earlier. I did not mean to be offensive so I took the liberty of removing my post.

Thanks for clearing that up!