"Some time in the second half of the seventeenth century, a merchant by the name of Matheus Miller began to write his life story.". "He did not record events in a larger world, as were often included in memoirs of his day. Rather, he recaptured his particular world, that of the German Imperial city of Augsburg, and his individual worldview. He told of his struggle to establish himself within a sharply critical family and a highly conservative community. At the same time he revealed his hopes and fears, his expectations and experiences, his values and his actions.". "He exposed the workings of such global institutions as patriarchy, hierarchy, office, honour, community, friendship and confession in his own life and the shortcomings of modern theories and interpretations of them."--BOOK JACKET.