In Our Time | 6 December 2018 | 0h 50m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the war in Europe which began in 1618 and continued on such a scale and with such devastation that its like was not seen for another three hundred years. It pitched Catholics against Protestants, Lutherans against Calvinists and Catholics against Catholics across the Holy Roman Empire, drawing in their neighbours. Many more civilians died than soldiers, and famine was so great that even cannibalism was excused.