Contemporary History
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
The course aims to face the main historical events in the contemporary age through a global approach in connection to the western society's cultural change.
Expected learning outcomes
The key purpose of the course is to give the students the necessary knowledge to figure out the most important historical processes occurred during the so-called "long" Nineteenth and "short" Twentieth centuries and concerning the birth of the modern ideologies, the evolution of the national identities, the spread of the political parties, the origin of totalitarianism, the rise and fall of the international bipolarism.
Lesson period: First trimester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First trimester
Course syllabus
Through a social and cultural perspective, the course will be divided in three main parts talking about contemporary history, according to the periodization formulated by the British historian Eric J. Hobsbawm. The course's first part will be dedicated to the history of the Nineteenth century from the three industrial, American and French revolutions to the outbreak of the first world war. The second part, instead, will concern the development of totalitarianism in Russia, Italy and Germany during the first post-war period and the second world war. Finally, the third part will focus on the cold war period and the rise of global bipolarism between the United States and Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991 and the making of Islamic terrorism. Therefore, the course will emphasize the following topics:
- the modern ideologies: liberalism, socialism, nationalism
- the rise of the political parties and national identities (Italy, Germany, United States, Japan)
- second industrial revolution and colonialism
- Great War, Russian Revolution and Fascism
- Nazism and the Second World War
- the Truman Doctrine and decolonization
- the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam War and '68
- the Oil Shock and the far-left and far-right terrorisms
- neoliberalism, glasnost and perestroika
- from the fall of Berlin wall to September 11
- the modern ideologies: liberalism, socialism, nationalism
- the rise of the political parties and national identities (Italy, Germany, United States, Japan)
- second industrial revolution and colonialism
- Great War, Russian Revolution and Fascism
- Nazism and the Second World War
- the Truman Doctrine and decolonization
- the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam War and '68
- the Oil Shock and the far-left and far-right terrorisms
- neoliberalism, glasnost and perestroika
- from the fall of Berlin wall to September 11
Prerequisites for admission
No requirements.
Teaching methods
The course will be held through frontal lectures with the use of power points by the teacher.
Teaching Resources
For the attending students:
- Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century, Londra, Penguin Books, 2018, chapters 1-5.
- John L. Harper, The Cold War, New York, Oxford University Press, 2011.
For the non-attending students:
- Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century, London, Penguin Books, 2018, chapters 1-5.
- John L. Harper, The Cold War, New York, Oxford University Press, 2011.
- Eric J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire, 1875-1914, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010.
- Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century, Londra, Penguin Books, 2018, chapters 1-5.
- John L. Harper, The Cold War, New York, Oxford University Press, 2011.
For the non-attending students:
- Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century, London, Penguin Books, 2018, chapters 1-5.
- John L. Harper, The Cold War, New York, Oxford University Press, 2011.
- Eric J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire, 1875-1914, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010.
Assessment methods and Criteria
Written exam with questions on the books and the slides that have been faced during the course's lessons.
M-STO/04 - CONTEMPORARY HISTORY - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours
Professor:
Landolfi Francesco
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Professor(s)