Geoffrey Mortimer, "Individual Experience and Perception of the Thirty Years War in Eyewitness Personal Accounts," German History 20 (2002): 141-60.
Questions to consider as you read and reflect on this article:
1. Which large historical / historiographical debate does Mortimer address?
2. Mortimer wants to redirect and perhaps revitalize the debate by posing a different question: "what was the war like, for at least some of the people caught up in it?" (143) Upon what sources does he draw to answer this question, and how reliable do you think they are?
3. What general conclusions can we draw from the way in which the Thirty Years War was reported and perceived?
4. After reading the article, what position do you think Mortimer takes in the debate to which he refers at the beginning of his article?
Do not read this article haphazardly. Keep Mortimer's findings in mind as you do the readings for the next two weeks, especially as you read Grimmelshausen.
This page was last revised on 8 November 2004 and has been visited
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