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Flesh and Spirit : Private Life in Early Modern Germany
Flesh and Spirit Private Life in Early Modern Germany Author:Steven Ozment An acclaimed historian chronicles the fascinating Reformation period in Germany through the vivid portrayal of five families. — As he did in his much praised and highly successful The Burgermeister's Daughter, Steven Ozment analyzes and weaves together primary sources to create a compelling account of German life in the sixteenth and early... more » seventeenth centuries. From private papers and archives--account books, letters, legal records, journals--emerge fascinating stories rescued from history: the complicated courtship dance of two politically prominent families; the joy of parenthood for a middle-aged couple when, after losing their first nine infants, a child survives; the difficulty a widowed mother has restraining her eldest son's expenses as he studies in Italy; the challenges faced by a Lutheran pastor negotiating the Church's bitter factionalism; and a Protestant teenager coping in Catholic Louvain.
As Flesh and Spirit follows each family, it masterfully re-creates the social and political world of this dramatic period in German history, aided by superb black-and-white illustrations throughout. Like the work of Simon Schama, Barbara Tuchman, and Natalie Zemon Davis (The Return of Martin Guerre), Ozment proves himself "scholarly impeccable yet at the same time perfectly accessible to general readers" (Booklist) in this captivating social history.« less