{"product_id":"europes-tragedy-a-history-of-the-thirty-years-war-9780141006147","title":"Europe's Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War","description":"\u003cp\u003eWinner of the Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award 2011 The horrific series of conflicts known as the Thirty Years War (1618-48) tore the heart out of Europe  killing perhaps a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to whole areas of Central Europe to such a degree that many towns and regions never recovered. All the major European powers apart from Russia were heavily involved and  while each country started out with rational war aims  the fighting rapidly spiralled out of control  with great battles giving way to marauding bands of starving soldiers spreading plague and murder. The war was both a religious and a political one and it was this tangle of motives that made it impossible to stop. Whether motivated by idealism or cynicism  everyone drawn into the conflict was destroyed by it. At its end a recognizably modern Europe had been created but at a terrible price. Peter Wilsons book is a major work  the first new history of the war in a generation  and a fascinating  brilliantly written attempt to explain a compelling series of events. Wilsons great strength is in allowing the reader to understand the tragedy of mixed motives that allowed rulers to gamble their countries future with such horrifying results. The principal actors in the drama (Wallenstein  Ferdinand II  Gustavus Adolphus  Richelieu) are all here  but so is the experience of the ordinary soldiers and civilians  desperately trying to stay alive under impossible circumstances.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45666174435381,"sku":"ByrdShop_0141006145","price":74.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780141006147.jpg?v=1782421810","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/europes-tragedy-a-history-of-the-thirty-years-war-9780141006147","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}