Mammoth work of scholarship on one of Europe's great catastrophes

Review of The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy by Peter H. Wilson

The 30 Years War is one of those watersheds, when an old order gives way to new directions that take centuries to work themselves out. According to Wilson, the roots of the conflict sprung from 2 essential sources: 1) the decline of the feudal order in Central Europe that had operated under the loose umbrella of the Holy Roman Empire and 2) the simmerin…