This fifth volume in the Collected Plays series brings together two of Brecht's plays, "The Life of Galileo" and "Mother Courage and her Children". "Galileo" examines the conflict between free enquiry and official ideology, through the story of the great astronomer and his persecution by the Inquisition. It contains one of Brecht's most human and complex central characters. The eponymous heroine of "Mother Courage" is another of the playwright's great creations. As the Thirty Years' War rages around her, claiming her children one by one, she nevertheless clings to her canteen wagon, the source of her livelihood.