How do I style the names of wars?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

We follow the guidelines in The Chicago Manual of Style, which notes that full names of most wars are capitalized and that generic terms are lowercased (“Wars”). The manual offers various options for referring to the two world wars; choose either roman numerals (World War I, World War II, World Wars I and II) or words (the First World War, the Second World War, the First and Second World Wars, the two world wars) to name these wars consistently throughout your paper.

Work Cited

“Wars and Revolutions.” The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed., sec. 8.113, U of Chicago P, 2017, www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed17/part2/
ch08/psec113.html.