“War of Northern Aggression,” Cont.

Recently I looked at the appearance of the phrase “War of Northern Aggression” in digitally-archived newspapers over the last 150 years, and noted that it seems to be clearly a modern term, one that first starts appearing in newspapers in the mid-1950s, often in conjunction with the Civil War Centennial or, more disturbingly, as part of the rhetoric wielded by segregationists against the federal courts:

So what happens when you search for “War of Northern Aggression” in books, as opposed to newspapers? You get exactly the same phenomenon:

Now obviously this doesn’t measure what people say, and opposed to what people write, but it’s pretty telling nonetheless — if the term had, in fact, been common parlance, it should have shown up in written accounts of one sort or another. But before the mid-1950s, it just doesn’t.

So how does that use of the term compare to its more familiar counterpart, the “War Between the States?” Like this:

Compared to “War Between the States,” the “War of Northern Aggression” barely registers at all. And note when “War Between the States” peaked — in the 1940s and 1950s, before leveling off since about 1970.

So what happens if we toss in two other terms, “American Civil War” and “Lincoln’s War,” how do they stack up?

By comparison, “Lincoln’s War” and “War of Northern Aggression” barely move the needle. In 2008, the last year for which data are available, the “American Civil War” showed up something like seven times more often than “War Between the States.” WBTS nets only a fraction of mentions now, than it did in the 1940s and 1950s. More interesting still, “War Between the States” barely registers, compared to “American Civil War,” until around the turn of the 20th century, as the old generation of veterans was passing on, and the next generation took on writing about the conflict. And “War Between the States” didn’t peak until virtually all the old soldiers were gone. You can run these summaries yourself here.

It’s quite fascinating to see how terminology has changed over time. We choose our words based on our perceptions, but then those words, in turn, change the perception of others and reshape our own views. What do you think these changes over time say about how we view the war, and present it to others? (Vague complaints about “political correctness” and “winners write the history” need not apply.)
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H/t to Kevin for prompting the idea for this.