Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

This book is long and complicated! I was not ready for this book!

Joachim Whaley covers a numerous amount of topics and genres in this book: at one point its a biography of certain individuals such as Martin Luther and later it could be a case study on some niche court case. A general theme of the book is reassessment however. He's constantly mentioning historians from the 19th and 20th century who's opinions of the Holy Roman Empire are seen as outdated nowadays. As a result, if you don't know anything about the Peasants Revolt, you might be a bit confused. Although he explains topics in detail, it's important to understand the big broad picture first.

As a result, while this is an excellent book, currently it's only a 3/5 stars because, perhaps, I don't appreciate it enough. Maybe in the future when I'm more knowledgeable and wiser, I'll give it a higher rating. A word of caution is to read something more broad first! The Holy Roman Empire is complicated and Whaley explains everything, therefore, keeping the topic a complicated one.