Zwischen Bauernkrieg und Französischer Revolution

"Unrest" in villages and towns on the Upper Rhine in the early modern period (1500-1800), triggered by the resistance of peasants and citizens against growing demands and impositions of the rulers - that is what this volume reports. Case studies vividly demonstrate that even after the defeat in the Peasants' War in 1525, the common man was by no means an active factor in political life. Remarkable are the determination and perseverance that peasants and burghers displayed in defending their rights - and that increasingly meant before the highest courts of the empire. The early modern "unrest" is embedded in an overarching context from the late Middle Ages through the Peasants' War to the post-revolutionary 19th century. Reflections on the history of research and on the tasks of future research conclude the volume.