Between 1575 and 1730 Colmar's citizenry were divided between Protestant and Catholic communities, plagued by chronic warfare, and ultimately subjugated by the kingdom of France. Using serial archival sources, Professor Wallace has reconstructed the collective biography of 6700 civic officials, merchant, artisans, and agricultural workers to examine the local impact of confessionalization in a religiously mixed town, the effect of warfare on the economic interdependence of town and country, and the tensions between French absolutism and traditional civil political culture. Economic historians, scholars of the Reformation, and students of French and German history will find valuable insights in this study.