Who decides that a country has experienced a rebellion, or an insurgency, not a “revolution?” Who owns the concept of revolution? What are the political and epistemic consequences of conceptual ownership? Why and how does a colonial situation inflect the language of social change? To answer such questions, this paper examines the sources, evolution, as well as effects of the struggle over naming radical movements of decolonization in the second half of the XXth century. Focusing on the case study of Algeria, the paper examines the political and cultural frameworks as well as traditions within which the Algerian War (1954-1962) was named and conceptualized by its protagonists. Using historical monographs as well as interviews with contemporary Algerian historians, it further analyzes the persistence of the struggle over naming in current postcolonial historiography, as it explores revisionist accounts of the War among Algerian opposition groups, and describes their erasure of women’s participation in the War. Theoretical lessons will be drawn about the role played today by former colonial empires in the symbolic appropriation and redefinition of their fall through the political production of historical knowledge.