"Thomas Robisheaux provides a welcome addition to the growing body of literature on what has until very recently been a rather neglected period of German history--that between the the Peace of Augsburg and the Thirty Years' War. His meticulously researched and gracefully written book examines rural life in the small patrimonial estate of Hohenlohe in southwest Germany from roughly 1500 to 1680, with special emphasis on the period 1550 to 1620. Using an enviable variety of sources, Robisheaux both tests the theories of other historians regarding peasants and other rural groups and develops his own. The author uses a good blend of statistics, narrative, and analysis, and includes a chapter-by-chapter bibliographic essay rather than a standard bibliography." Merry E. Wiesner, The Sixteenth Century Journal
