This book is based on a series of episodes from village or small town life in the duchy of WUrttemberg in southwest Germany between 1580 and 1800, in which state authorities conducted a special investigation into local events. The cases and characters involved include peasants' refusal to celebrate church rituals; a self-proclaimed prophet who encountered an angel in his vineyard; a thirteen-year-old-witch; a paranoid pastor; a murder; and live burial of a village bull.
Reviews
'This work represents a large step in the direction of the sort of integrated social history for which we should all be striving. Sabean's aims are ambitious; only someone who had been immersed for decades in early modern peasant life could have written this book.' Journal of Interdisciplinary History 'This book is one of the richest and most suggestive works in German social history I have ever read - not only for its treatment of substantive developments in Central Europe but, more significantly, for its major contributions too the current study of premodern European popular culture.' German Studies Review 'This book is important because it is one of the very few significant examinations available in English of early modern German popular culture and mentalities ... Subtle and informative, Sabean' presentation holds one's attention and makes one think.' Canadian Journal of History
