Capitalization, Titles
Q. I’m confused why CMOS suggests leaving “cold war” lowercase in rule 8.81. It seems to me that it should be capped, because it’s a clear historical period. Pleeaazze help.
A. Yes, the fifteenth edition of CMOS, paragraph 8.81, lists “cold war” as an exception to those major historical events and projects that are capitalized. It has always been my understanding that the reason we do not capitalize “cold war” (which our manual first addressed in the twelfth edition, 1969) has something to do with its general, descriptive nature. There was, for about four and a half decades, a state of global political tension that was described not quite as war but rather as “cold war.” Some would argue, however, especially after the events of 1989 and 1991, that there had been a real war, on the level of a war like the Second World War, specifically between the United States and the Soviet Union, and that this war should be capitalized. We will consider adding this distinction to future editions of the manual.
