• List of Illustrations and Maps


• Introduction


• 1: Nations, States, and Conflict in Central Europe


• 2: How to Mobilize the Polish Nation


• 3: The Central European Civil War


• 4: Violence and Crimes Beyond the Battlefields


• Conclusion


• Epilogue

Jochen Böhler is a Research Fellow at the Imre Kertész Kolleg in Jena, where he teaches courses on the history of early twentieth-century Central and Eastern Europe. His most recent publications include, War, Pacification, and Mass Murder, 1939: The Einsatzgruppen in Poland (2014) alongside Jurgen Matthäus and Klaus-Michael Mallmann, Legacies of Violence: Eastern Europe's First World War (2014) with Joachim von Puttkamer and Wlodzimierz Borodziej and The Waffen-SS. A European History (2016) with Robert Gerwarth.

Civil War in Central Europe argues that Polish independence after the First World War was forged in the fires of the post-war conflicts which should be collectively referred to as the Central European Civil War (1918-1921). The ensuing violence forced those living in European border regions to decide on their national identity - German or Polish.