THOMAS MÜNTZER

Reviews of the book are to be found below, along with links to interviews, and any startling news.

Why not just click on the image below right, for a colourful depiction of Müntzer's last battle...?

So ... who was this Müntzer, then?
Born in 1489 in the Harz Mountains of Germany, Thomas Müntzer was a contemporary of Martin Luther. Like Luther, he worked tirelessly to sweep away the old corrupt and discredited Roman church, and build a new one fit for Germans. Like Luther, he called for a new interpretation of the Bible. There, the resemblances end. In the tragic unravelling of the brief and bloody Peasant War in Germany, Müntzer died on the executioner's block in May 1525. He had made the mistake of siding with the discontented peasants and townspeople of Germany. He had tried to push the Reformation further than it was supposed to go. For that, he earned the hatred of the German princes (both Lutheran and Catholic) and most especially of Luther himself.
For 500 years, he has provoked detestation and admiration in almost equal amounts. It took historians almost 450 years to even begin to understand the complexity of the man and his teachings. He has been seen as an early Communist and a people's hero - for both roles, praised and vilified. In the past 100 years, he has inspired at least 150 novels, poems, films and other artistic productions. In the past 60 years, over two thousand books, articles and essays have appeared.

Reviews ...

Impeccably researched, engagingly written, and careful in its assessment... "Impeccably researched, engagingly written, and careful in its assessment, it is an ideal introduction to its subject, and to the times in which he lived... Unpacking the many strands of Müntzer’s thinking – including his mystical theology, apocalyptic worldview, and identification with the peasant cause to the point of taking up arms to advance it – is no easy task, but Drummond succeeds, leaving readers in his debt... This is an inspiring, as well as informative, read."
Prof. Andrew Bradstock, Baptist Quarterly (UK), 25 July 2025. (Subscription required for online version.)

A nuanced understanding of the past in all its religious weirdness... "Drummond rightly shows and understands the interrelated nature of religion, economics, and politics. His handling of the enmity between Muntzer and Martin Luther also reveals the antagonisms emerging in 16th century Protestantism between radical religion and reform, including their respective relationship to political authority... Drummond’s book shows what can be done with a nuanced understanding of the past in all its religious weirdness."
Prof. James Crossley, Morning Star (UK), 25 July 2025.

A highly readable biography "Drummond presents a highly readable biography of Thomas Müntzer, which provides the English-speaking public with a comprehensive view of the reformer's life and work for the first time... The work also offers some successful passages and formulations and will therefore also be consulted in the future by specialized researchers for its potential"
Prof. Gerd Schwerhoff, Dresden, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung, Volume 52 Summer 2025

Andrew Drummond’s marvellous new book... "Drummond explains how Muntzer developed from a radical theologian in the Catholic Church to a revolutionary, and how he used his position as a priest to try to convince the poor to fight for a free society... Andrew Drummond’s marvellous new book is the definitive biography of the sixteenth century revolutionary. Drummond’s portrait of Muntzer provides a role model for socialists today."
Sandra Bloodworth, Red Flag (Australia), 15 March 2025.

Vivid and convincing. "Drummond’s description of the wider uprising is vivid and convincing. ... Scholarly treatments of the peasant uprisings during the Cold War years naturally had depicted the rebellions as a manifestation of mass irrationality, anticipating Adolf Hitler and National Socialism. Thanks most recently to Drummond, we now know better."
Paul Buhle, Monthly Review (USA), 1 December 2024.

Painstaking. "Drummond painstakingly draws out the historic significance of seemingly arcane theological debates... It is vital to follow Drummond in tracing a competing, transformative, revolutionary history of millenarianism, and to assess the social ramifications of what we could term the millenarian idea’s transmission through radical history. "
Matt Broomfield, The Nation (USA), 19 November 2024.

Much to admire. "There is much to admire in Drummond’s non-dogmatic view of Müntzer as one who fought and died in the effort to produce a new and better world by overturning, with violence if required, the existing authorities in ecclesiastical, cultural, and socio-political life... Drummond’s intelligent and reliable account of this early revolutionary leaves us wishing to know more about Müntzer’s positive ideas for the new world he sought to bring about."
Michael Baylor, 16th Century Journal (USA), Spring/Summer 2024.

An engaging book. "The author presents an engaging book that gives a tidy primer on Thomas Müntzer. There is enough theology to be informative without becoming inscrutable."
Greta Gaffin, National Catholic Reporter (USA), 10 August 2024.

Müntzer’s apocalyptic vision. "Drummond takes pleasure in capturing Müntzer’s apocalyptic vision ... and is at his best when he places Müntzer squarely within a political and social world that looks strange to us today, where God or the devil might speak to you in dreams and a statement of political demands had to be peppered with scriptural references."
Madeline Grimm, Cleveland Review of Books (USA), 6 August 2024.

Compelling. "In 15 compellingly written chapters, Drummond insightfully recounts Müntzer’s early years, his itinerant life, his dramatic end, and his legacy... In Drummond’s deft hands, Müntzer’s story testifies to the extraordinary dynamism and fervour of the early years of the German Reformation"
Bridget Heal, Professor of Early Modern History, University of St Andrews Church Times (UK), 26 July 2024.

Excellent. "An excellent history of the sixteenth-century radical Thomas Müntzer brings the radical Reformation and the dawn of the modern era into focus."
Dominic Alexander, Counterfire (UK), 6 June 2024.

Evocative, exquisitely detailed. "Andrew Drummond’s skeptical and compassionate biography documents a life that is as much a warning as an inspiration to the modern left. Its evocative, exquisitely detailed panorama of Reformation Germany leads us to reflect on the tangled links between religious zeal and the successful exercise of political power."
Michael Ledger-Lomas, Jacobin (USA), 11 March 2024.

Highly readable. "Drummond’s biography of this volatile and subversive thinker is both highly readable and carefully researched, drawing on specialist scholarship in both English and German alongside the reformer’s own writings. Little is known for certain about Müntzer’s life prior to 1523, but Drummond pieces the clues together skilfully and provides thoughtful accounts... A lively and engaging biography of Müntzer, the first in English for several decades..."
Peter Marshall, Literary Review (UK), 1 March 2024. (Subscription required for online edition)

Marvellous romp. "Drummond’s marvellous romp of a biography – part jolly Simon Winder-like deepdive into 16th-century Germania, part sagacious reflection on the Reformation in the manner of Diarmaid MacCulloch – aims to free Müntzer from his detractors. ... If history is mostly written by the winners, then what Drummond does here is a valuable corrective, showing us that losers’ stories warrant telling too.."
Stuart Jeffries, The Spectator (UK), 17 February 2024. (Subscription required for online edition)

Blisteringly good. "Thomas Müntzer made Martin Luther look tame. Andrew Drummond's lively history follows his challenge to the Pope and the German princes alike... Drummond has written a blisteringly good book about personal enmity, and the difference between revolution and reform."
Dan Brooks, The Telegraph (UK), 27 January 2024.

Fantastic account. "Andrew Drummond's fantastic account of his life, ideas and fate is a brilliant reaffirmation of the importance of Müntzer for contemporary times. Told with a firm grasp of the archival material, fresh new translations of Müntzer's ideas and a wry sense of humour, this is a book for the 500th anniversary that everyone should read.
Martin Empson (The Resolute Reader), January 2024.

Well researched. "Drummond makes a virtue of the scant information available, letting Müntzer fade into the background during wide-ranging explorations of the disparate forces that coalesced into the Reformation movement. Those interested in the political and religious struggles that shaped the modern world will delight in this well-researched case study in zeal."
Publishers Weekly (USA), December 2023.

"At last – a new account for our times of Thomas Müntzer, theologian and revolutionary. Drummond brings Müntzer and his world vividly to life. He shows us just why Müntzer hated Luther, and how he came to take up arms. What did it mean to be a revolutionary in sixteenth-century Germany? – Drummond shows us. You will be gripped and inspired by this exciting story – I couldn’t put it down."
Lyndal Roper, Regius Professor of History at Oxford, and author of Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet

"Posterity has endorsed not just Luther’s victory, but also his determined character assassination of his rival. Andrew Drummond’s scholarly but eminently readable, thoughtful, thorough and at times witty biography of Müntzer redresses the balance for English-speaking audiences
Professor Michael Russell, University of Glasgow

... and Interviews and News...