‘The Great and Miserable Flight’: The Experiences of Refugees in Newsprint during the Thirty Years’ War

Abstract As the Thirty Years’ War was greatest demographic crisis in Europe between Black Death and two World Wars, it is unsurprising that conflict created number of refugees continent’s history prior to twentieth century. However, limited scholarship on displaced persons 1618 1648 has been exclusively based micro-level eyewitness accounts, diaries, memoirs. This article broadens scope studies during beyond such individualistic sources through an examination their treatment newsprint, a source base which hitherto entirely overlooked. A case study over 200 newspaper reports allows this examine how frequency appearances as well language vocabulary used describe them, can provide valuable insight into experiences attitudes contemporaries mid-seventeenth century Europe.