This book, first published in 1979, presents a series of important investigations into the German Peasant War of 1525 – the last great peasant revolt and the first modern revolution. Previously under-studied by English-speaking historians, these essays provide a valuable analysis of the aims and extent of the Peasant War.

1. Theses on the Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany, 1476–1535 Max Steinmetz 2. The ‘Peasant War’ as the Revolution of the Common Man – Theses Peter Blickle 3. Towards a Social Interpretation of the German Peasant War John C. Stalnaker 4. The Gospel of Social Unrest Heiko A. Oberman 5. The Social and Economic Prehistory of the Peasant War in Lower Alsace Francis Rapp 6. The Peasant War in Franconia Rudolf Endres 7. The Socio-Economic Structure and Political Role of the Suburbs in Saxon and Thuringia in the Age of the German Early Bourgeois Revolution Karl Czok 8. Arms and Military Organisation in the German Peasant War Siegfried Hoyer 9. The Common Man’s View of the State in the German Peasant War Horst Buszello 10. The Rights and Duties of Resistance in the Pamphlet To the Assembly of Common Ancestry (1525) Siegfried Hoyer 11. Biblicism versus Feudalism Peter Blickle 12. The Mentality of the Rebellious Peasants – the Samland Peasant Rebellion of 1525 Heide Wunder 13. The Peasant War in the Habsburg Lands as a Social Systems-Conflict Jürgen Bücking 14. Family and Land Tenure: A Case Study of Conflict in the German Peasant War 1525 David Sabean