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The book Violence and Propaganda in European Civil Wars-Dimensions of Conflict, 1917–1949 has been published
The book Violence and Propaganda in European Civil Wars-Dimensions of Conflict, 1917–1949 has been published
Violence and Propaganda in European Civil Wars: Dimensions of Conflict, 1917–1949, edited by Yiannis Kokosalakis and Francisco J. Leira-Castiñeira, offers an innovative perspective on the most significant civil conflicts in Europe during the first half of the twentieth century, approached from an interdisciplinary and comparative standpoint.
Recently published, this volume brings together an international team of historians and social scientists to examine violence in civil war contexts as a complex phenomenon, shaped by structural, ideological, social and personal factors. In contrast to approaches that privilege either micro-level explanations or overly general interpretations, the work seeks to understand violence as a multidimensional reality, moulded by specific historical circumstances and mechanisms of dehumanising propaganda.
The book is structured into three sections. The first explores contextual issues — such as the role of ideology and social dynamics — that influenced the use of violence. The following two sections present case studies of six European civil wars that are universally recognised as such: Russia, Finland, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Greece.
With a plural methodological approach and a strong commitment to comparative historical analysis, Violence and Propaganda in European Civil Wars stands as an essential reference for those researching contemporary European history, internal armed conflicts, political violence, and international relations.
This book not only enriches academic debate on European civil wars, but also invites reflection on the logics of violence in a continent that, for decades, was the scene of fratricidal conflict.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Foreword, Robert Gerwarth
Introduction: Civil War in Word and Deed: Dimensions of violence in Europe’s Age of Civil Wars, Yiannis Kokosalakis and Francisco J. Leira-Castiñeira
Part I: Contextual Aspects of Violence
1. Civil War as the Graveyard of Revolution in Europe, 1917-1923, Bill Kissane
2. “Civil War” in Modern France: A Historical Genealogy from Discursive Violence to Physical Killing, Joan Pubill Brugués
3. Was There a Balkan Civil War?, Dmitar Tasić
4. “Kill or Be Killed”: Psychological Approaches to Decision-Making and Moral Judgements in Civil Wars, Raquel Martín-Ríos and Francisco J. Leira Castiñeira
5. Defining the Enemy: Propaganda in a Civil War, Troy Paddock
6. Brutality in Civil Wars: Sociological Reflections, Siniša Malešević
Part II: Political Discourse and Propaganda
7. ‘Corpulent plutocrats’ versus ‘scheming Jews’: Propaganda and Violence in the Russian Civil War, Yiannis Kokosalakis
8. Enemy Images, Group Experiences and Propaganda in the Finnish Civil War, 1918, Tuomas Tepora
9. “There can be no compromise”: The Propaganda of the Irish Civil War, Elaine Callinan
10. “The war of words”: Propaganda during the Spanish Civil War, Francisco Sevillano Calero
11. Patriots, Traitors, and Rebels: Mutual Portraits of Partisans and Fascists in the Italian Civil War, 1943-1945, Nicola Cacciatore
12. Political Discourse and Propaganda during the Greek Civil War, Haris Razakos
Part III: Physical Violence
13. Grassroots Executions of Naval Officers by Seamen: Myth and Reality of Violence during the Russian Revolution, 1917-1918, Kirill Nazarenko
14. Citizens at War: Mobilization, Militarization, and Atrocities in the Finnish Civil War and Beyond, Aapo Roselius
15. Violence in the Irish Civil War, Thomas Earls FitzGerald
16. “We Were Real Beasts”: From ‘Ordinary Men’ to Combatants in Spain, 1936-1939, Francisco J. Leira-Castiñeira
17. The Italian Civil War: An Explosion of Brutality, Amedeo Osti Guerrazi
18. The Logic of Violence during the Greek Civil War, 1946-1949, Spyros Tsoutsoumpis
Editors
Editors
Biography
Biography
Yiannis Kokosalakis is a guest researcher at Bielefeld University, Germany. He is the author of Building Socialism: The Communist Party and the Making of the Soviet System, 1921–1941 (2023).
Francisco J. Leira‑Castiñeira is the Ramón y Cajal Fellow at Charles III University of Madrid, Spain. He is the author of Franco’s Soldiers: Recruitment and Combat in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) (2023) and co‑editor of The Crucible of Francoism (2021).
Reviews
Reviews
“Bringing together theoretical discussions of intrastate violence and empirical studies of conflicts in Russia, Finland, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Greece, Propaganda and Violence offers a nuanced, multidisciplinary examination of the relationship between dehumanizing propaganda and the brutal realities of European civil wars. Contributors highlight both the utility of historical comparison and necessity of attending to the specific and varied personal, social, political, and ideological factors that generated violence in particular cases”.
Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, West Chester University, USA
“Why were Europe’s civil wars in the first half of the twentieth century often so violent? This important and ambitious volume analyses the ideological, political and social factors that generated these cultures of intense violence”.
Martin Conway, University of Oxford, UK
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