Thirty Years War Interpreted by a Politologist

Prokopiev, A. Yu. Tridtsatiletnyaya voyna vzglyadom politologa [Thirty Years War Interpreted by a Politologist], in: Proslogion: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Social History and Culture, 2018. Vol. 4 (1). P. 139168.

Andrey Yur’evich Prokopiev, doctor of History, professor, Institute of History, St. Petersburg State University (199034, Rossiya, Sankt-Peterburg, Mendeleevskaya liniya, 5)

Language: Russian

The article is dedicated to the book of the German political scientist Herfried Münkler, published on the anniversary of the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War with the author’s political science postulates being critically examined. Is it possible to see the Thirty Years’ War as the forerunner of modern «hybrid» and «asymmetric» wars? What are the lessons of this war for modernity and can we use the laws of modern political science to analyze the early modern times? Is the «interference» of modern sciences in the field of historical research academically correct? The work of the well-known German scholar’s is analyzed in accordance with historical approach, taking into account the latest literature devoted to the Thirty Years’ War. It is emphasized that the laws of political science, projected into the past, can hardly help to reconstruct the historical panorama of events. They only emerge further questions and doubts. For the successful argumentation of the theses, it is necessary to take into account the point of view of historians, specialized in a certain epoch.

Key Words: Thirty Years’ War, Holy Roman Empire, Peace of Westphalia, Habsburger, German Estates, asymmetrical and hybridical war, Early Modern period

URL: http://proslogion.ru/41-prokopiev/

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