Peace is generally defined as a state of non-belligerency between states. This means that it is defined negatively as the absence of war. So is peace just a pause between two wars?
In French, the term is significant: peace is considered a slice of life between two conflicts. Thus, we speak of the early 20 century as the «Belle Époque» and we talk about the «interwar period», which implies the failure of peace.
Twenty years after the end of the Great War, another, even more terrible conflict began. At the same time, an inversion of values took place in European minds that along with the horrors of war made it very difficult for any Franco-German reconciliation to take place. We would have to wait for the end of the Second World War and its consequences to speak of peace as a realistic utopia.
This volume brings together a number of articles in Portuguese, French and English - on topics such as «thinking peace», intellectuals and peace, federalism and universalism, religiosity and secularism, women and peace, and campaigns and mobility - from many prestigious experts and young researchers. They bring new ways of thinking and interdisciplinary perspectives, and provide an attentive, critical reading of the core subject. This volume proposes to substantiate concepts, projects, movements, speeches, images and representations, and to deepen the knowledge of the key personalities who thought about peace between 1849 and 1939.

Maria Manuela Tavares Ribeiro is Full Professor at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra.
Maria Fernanda Rollo is Associate Professor in the History Department of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
Isabel Maria Freitas Valente is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of the Twentieth Century, University of Coimbra - CEIS20.
Alice Cunha is currently a Researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History.

Contents: Nicolas Pitsos : La « Belle-Époque » du mouvement de la paix à Paris, à la veille de la Grande Guerre. Discours et pratiques pacifistes et antimilitaristes pendant les guerres balkaniques de 1912-1913 - Christina Theodosiou : Lectures de la Grande Guerre sous le prisme de la réconciliation. L'exemple de la commémoration de l'Armistice du 11 novembre 1918 après Locarno (1925-1932) - Francesco Scomazzon : Un pacifisme armé : la Suisse et la guerre civile espagnole entre neutralité, antifascisme et action humanitaire (1936-1939) - António Paulo Duarte: Guerra Total e Abolição da Guerra. Para uma genealogia do conceito de segurança - João Madeira: Da Liga Portuguesa Contra a Guerra e o Fascismo à Frente Popular Portuguesa. «Pela Paz» entre guerras - Albérico Afonso Costa: A ação pacifista e antimilitarista. Um paiol de ideias contra a guerra - Isabel Baltazar: «Pela Paz»! Os Estados Unidos da Europa. Ecos do Ideal Europeu de Victor Hugo em Portugal - Bruna Bianchi: Tolstoy's Influence on International Pacifism (1914-1928) - Alexandre Niess : Léon Bourgeois, apports et mémoires d'un théoricien de la paix et de la Société des Nations - Tiago Tadeu: Guerrilha pela Paz. Iniciativas pacifistas durante a Grande Guerra - Clara Isabel Serrano: «Lições da História»: Augusto de Castro e as propostas de paz de 1917 - Sérgio Neto: Norton de Matos. Obreiro da Guerrae Arauto da Paz - José Gomes André: Federalismo e universalismo em Proudhon - Sónia Rebocho: Alves da Veiga (1849-1924). O federalismo como garante da paz social - Donatella Cherubini: Pacifist and pro-European Italian socialism between the two World Wars. G.E. Modigliani's proposals and requests in the international context - João Esteves: O pacifismo feminino, feminista e antifascista em Portugal enquanto construção da cidadania das mulheres (1899-1935) - Fátima Mariano: Pacifismo e feminismo em Portugal nas vésperas da 1ª guerra mundial - Rebecca Shriver: Women, Pacifism, and the Pan-European Union. Searching for Support in Weimar Political Culture - Marie-Michèle Doucet : Prise de parole au féminin. Pétitions et lettres pour le désarmement chez les femmes françaises (1931-1932) - Cláudia Ninhos: Discursos europeístas sob a égide do III Reich. Entre a propaganda e a prática - José Manuel Pureza: Glórias e misérias da paz pelo direito. As conferências de Haia de 1899 e 1907 - Ana Henggler: Despertar as mentes, difundir a paz. Propaganda e educação pacifista nos Congressos Universais de Paz (1889-1939) - José Luís Assis: Paz e Pacifismo na Imprensa Militar. Paradoxo ou realidade - Benjamin Ziemann: «No more war!» Pacifist War Veterans in Germany, 1918-1923.