N. M. Sutherland, “The Origin of the Thirty Years War and the Structure of European Politics.”

1. Sutherland states: “No historian of the Thirty Years War has paid systematic attention to its origins” (p. 587). Would she revise this statement after reading Part 1 of Europe’s Tragedy ? 2. Why in Sutherland’s view was the Thirty Years War a “myth.” Would Wilson agree with this assessment? 3. Sutherland arranges her analysis into four periods. What are they? 4. On what does Sutherland focus when she considers the immediate origins of what she calls the “German war”?

5. Do you notice any specific points of agreement and / or disagreement between Sutherland and Wilson? What are they? 6. Do you think that a key difference between Wilson and Sutherland is that Sutherland offers a characterization of the Thirty Years War, while Wilson’s argument mostly tells us what the war was not ?