An extraordinary and brilliant book. In Lyndal Roper's evocatively beautiful, crystal-clear prose, the complex landscapes of early sixteenth-century Germany - physical, psychological, spiritual, social and political - unfold before our eyes. She shows us the dreams and deeds that shaped the Peasants' War, the greatest popular revolt in western Europe before the French Revolution, and the ways in which that war shaped the future that followed. This is a profound account of an attempt to change the world, a sensational narrative that is both human and humane, illuminating, resonant and unsettling.