Ricerc@Sapienza

INTRODUCTION
Norris et al. (2008) define community resilience as a process made of four adaptive capacities: economic development, communication and information, community competence, social capital.

INTRODUCTION

This special issue of «Contemporanea: Rivista di storia dell’800 e del ’900», dedi-
cated to the relationship between war and welfare, was completed while the Covid-19
pandemic was invading the lives of tens of millions of people around the world, rap-
idly changing their lifestyles, priorities, and expectations about the future. The very
concepts of safety and risk – concepts that have always been entwined with any the-
oretical reflection on the welfare state, as well as on its concrete practices – were
radically affected.

In March 1919, in the midst of a terrible internal and international crisis, Hungary became a Soviet republic and was involved in a struggle to defend its borders by neighbouring countries. This situation resulted in the Hungarian-Romanian war that lasted until August 1919 and led to the occupation of the country, that in eastern Hungary lasted until 28 March 1920. The Allied council disapproved Romania’s conduct during military operations in Hungary.

Numbers and warfare are strictly bounded: in particular, war is a very special situation where numbers acquire a very important meaning and function. Even nowadays, when speaking of and analysing war, we are inevitably attracted by numbers and, we could say, numbers precisely dictate the reason and choice of war on the one hand, and the outcome and implication of fighting on the other. In particular, after the battle is over, a virtual fight of numbers begins comparing victories and losses, survivors and fallen