Languages and Concepts of European Civil Wars, 1917–39: An Introduction

Abstract This introduction opens a special issue on ‘Languages and Concepts of European Civil Wars, 1917–39’. Drawing on case studies of Russia, Finland, Ireland, Austria and Spain, the issue examines civil war as a struggle over language and political identity. Its articles consider how historical actors used, contested or avoided terms such as ‘civil war’, ‘rebellion’ and ‘intervention’. From the perspective of language, civil wars appear as conflicts in which a ‘war of words’ could enable armed confrontation. Taken together, the articles show how language shaped the legitimization of violence, the construction of enemy images, the mobilization of emotions and the later memory of conflict. The special issue thus places language at the centre of the analysis, as a way of understanding how internal conflicts acquired political meaning.