Interview: Professor Lyndal Roper on the German Peasants' War

Tides of History

Wondery / Patrick Wyman

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The German Peasants' War was the largest popular revolt in Europe before the French Revolution, but it's largely been forgotten. Why? Professor Lyndal Roper of the University of Oxford joins me to discuss her absolutely outstanding new book, Summer of Fire and Blood, and we discuss peasants, resistance, and the heady days of the early Reformation. Buy her book!

Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWverge. And check out Patrick's new podcast The Pursuit of Dadliness! It’s all about “Dad Culture,” and Patrick will interview some fascinating guests about everything from tall wooden ships to smoked meats to comfortable sneakers to history, sports, culture, and politics. https://bit.ly/PWtPoD

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Tides of History early and ad-free right now.
0:04.6	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:12.8	Hi, everybody, from Wondery.
0:18.5	Welcome to another episode of Tides of History.
0:20.7	I'm Patrick Wyman.
0:21.6	Thanks so much for joining me today. When most laypeople think about medieval and early modern Europe, they think of elites.
0:28.9	Kings, nobles, popes, bishops, knights in shining armor, maybe wealthy merchants and powerful abysses.
0:35.4	But most of the people alive in those times and places weren't
0:38.7	elites. They were peasants, the humble tillers of the soil. It was their surplus production
0:44.1	that lords both secular and religious appropriated to build their castles and cathedrals,
0:48.3	and it was their labor that kept everyone fed. Medieval and early modern society wasn't
0:53.0	kind to peasants. They were at the bottom of
0:55.1	the ladder, and even the most prosperous of them were still separated from their betters by a wide chasm.
1:00.3	For the most part, they knew this and they got on with their lives, while elites shouted from the
1:04.7	rooftops that their strong sword arms and pious prayers were what kept the peasantry safe and on
1:09.8	the path to salvation.
1:16.3	But every once in a while, and more often than you might think, the peasant's frustrations with an obviously unfair and exploitative system boiled over into action.
1:20.7	The most stunning of these episodes took place in Germany between 1524 and 1526, the German
1:27.1	peasants' war. Today's guest has written an outstanding Germany between 1524 and 1526, the German Peasants War.
1:29.4	Today's guest has written an outstanding new history of that conflict, entitled
1:33.6	Summer of Fire and Blood.
1:36.3	Lyndall Roper is Regis Professor of History at Oriel College, Oxford University, and one of
	...

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