This month marks the start of the 30 year war. This conflict devestated Central Europe, checked the power of the Holy Roman Empire and with the Treaty of Westphaiia marked the begining of the centralised nation state.
The classic work on this is CV Wedgewood book of the same name, while a more recent work (reading ATM) is Wilson's Lutzen (the battle were the Swedish king Adolfus was killed).
In Fantasy, the popular series Ring of Fire is set in that era and finally one cannot mention the war without Sabaton: