War in Peace Paramilitary Violence in Europe after the Great War

Explains why, in many parts of Europe, the end of the Great War brought not peace but continued conflict. Contributes to an understanding of the difficult transition from war to peace and shows how paramilitary violence helped legitimize both fascism and communism, and also many of the new nation-states that emerged from the Great War.

The First World War did not end in November 1918. In Russia and Eastern Europe it finished up to a year earlier, and both there and elsewhere in the world it triggered conflicts that lasted down to 1923. Paramilitary formations were prominent in this continuation of the war. Paramilitary violence was an important ingredient in the clashes unleashed by class revolution in Russia. It structured the counter-revolution in central and Eastern Europe, including Finland and Italy, which in the name of order and authority reacted against a mythic version of Bolshevik class violence. It also shaped the struggles over borders and ethnicity in the new states that replaced the multi-national empires of Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Ottoman Turkey. It was prominent on all sides in the wars for Irish independence. Paramilitary violence was charged with political significance and acquired a long-lasting symbolism and influence. War in Peace explores the differences and similarities between these various kinds of paramilitary violence within one volume for the first time. It contributes to our understanding of the difficult transitions from war to peace, re-situates the Great War in a longer-term context, and explains its enduring impact.

1 - Paramilitarism in Europe after the Great War: An Introduction
2 - Paramilitary Violence in Russia's Civil Wars, 1918-1920
3 - Bolshevism as Fantasy: Fear of Revolution and Counter-Revolutionary Violence, 1917-1923
4 - Fighting the Red Beast: Counter-Revolutionary Violence in the Defeated States of Central Europe
5 - Revolution, Civil War, and Terror in Finland in 1918
6 - Paramilitary Violence in Italy: The Rationale of Fascism and the Origins of Totalitarianism
7 - Bands of Nation Builders? Insurgency and Ideology in the Ukrainian Civil War
8 - Turning Citizens into Soldiers: Baltic Paramilitary Movements after the Great War
9 - The Origins, Attributes, and Legacies of Paramilitary Violence in the Balkans
10 - Paramilitary Violence in the Collapsing Ottoman Empire
11 - Soldiers to Civilians, Civilians to Soldiers: Poland and Ireland after the First World War
12 - The British Culture of Paramilitary Violence in the Irish War of Independence
13 - Defending Victory: Paramilitary Politics in France, 1918-1926. A Counter-example

Robert Gerwarth was born in Berlin and educated at Oxford where he also held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. He has been Professor of Modern History at University College Dublin and Director of UCD's Centre for War Studies since 2009. He is the author of several monographs and edited books on modern European history, most recently of a biography on Reinhard Heydrich. John Horne was educated in Australia and Britain, and has taught modern European history for many years at Trinity College Dublin. He has published extensively on French history and on the comparative and transnational history of the Great War. He is a member of the board of the Centre for Research at the Historial de la Grande Guerre, Péronne, a founder member of EurohistXX, the research consortium in contemporary European history, and a member of the Royal Irish Academy.