I'm reading some biographies on Bach (1685 - 1750) and while they do a great job relaying his musical development and his travels, they do a very poor job describing what life was like in general in the places in which he lived (e.g. Cothen, Weimar and Leipzig).
From what I gather, he lived in an area called the Electorate of Saxony which was part of the Holy Roman Empire. This is post-Thirty Years War and there are a few mentions of the region being in pretty rough shape. But any specifics on what that means are left out.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the impression it was kind of a transitional period for that part of Europe; not the Middle Ages, but not quite the Age of Enlightenment either.
Are there any books that may offer more detail about the environment in which Bach lived?
It's more focused on France but one series of books that comes to mind is "A History of Private Life". It's a translation from the French work "Histoire de la vie Privee". It's in four volumes, I believe volume 3 would be the closest to the time of Bach. I've had to read this for a class on Early Modern European social history and have seen it recommended on this subreddit a few times before.