Europe in the West did not come easily into capitalism. It was dragged into it, bleeding

and screaming. I'd like to dedicate this series to Mr. Bob Toranski, my high school

Euro history teacher, who I first heard that phrase from as he began our section on the

30 Years War. This is the story we want to tell with this series, specifically the story

of the 30 Years War and the apocalyptic wave of destruction it brought across central

Europe from 1618 to 1648. But more broadly, it's the story of the gleaming terminator

skeleton of capitalism in a state capable of imposing capitalism, being ripped violently

out of the fetted, decomposing body of feudalism during the long 17th century.

This is the story of princes and armies of cool intrigue and royal courts that hot death

on the battlefield of people fighting for a world to come that would redeem the suffering

of their lives. But it's also a remarkably familiar set of interlocking and escalating

structural crises, climate change, financial collapse, pandemic, and a social fabric torn

apart by rapid advances in communication technology. These times may seem remote, but this is also

the story of the birth of the modern human subject out of the wreckage of the previous

age. But to welcome a new era, the past had to be destroyed, through blade, through plague,

through fire and brimstone and amnesia. I'm Chris Wade. I'm Matt Christmas. Welcome to Hell

Honor.

On October 31st, 1570, All Saints Day Eve, an obscure monk from the backwater German

town of Wittenburg sent a letter containing 95 doctrinal quibbles to the Archbishop of

Mainz. And later most likely posted these 95 feces publicly on the door of the All Saints

Church in Wittenburg. Nobody could have possibly imagined at that moment, but that simple

post would be the beginning of one of the most seismic shifts in thought, society, and

...