81719 - Atlantic and Global History of Modern Political Concepts (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will acquire the fundamental methodological and theoretical tools of the so-called «Atlantic History», which redefines the spatial limits of Modern politics, considering Europe, Africa and the Americas as part of one and the same global experience. This perspective well developed in North American universities will be extended to the history of political concepts, with a special attention to antagonistic political cultures and resistance movements, but also to the colonial dimension embedded in the great classics of Modern and contemporary political thought.

Course contents

The course will focus on the history of modern political thought and will particularly analyze how the opening of a new political space and the problems involved in the European expansion overseas in the early-modern age have affected the discursive strategies and the conceptual frameworks adopted by legal and political theorists.

The course will be divided in three different but interconnected units.

The first unit (approximately the first week) will deal with the basic theoretical tools of conceptual history and its redefinition from a global and oceanic perspective.

The second unit (approximately the second and the third week of the course) will outline the rise of the Atlantic as the space within which western modern political concepts were forged and will discuss relevant passages from classic thinkers such as Francisco de Vitoria, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Thomas Paine.

The third unit (approximatively the fourth and the fifth week of the course) will have a more seminar style, with readings and collective discussions. It will focus on a spatial reading of the work of the jurist Hugo Grotius, who has been traditionally considered as one of the founding fathers of modern international law and modern maritime law, but – as recent scholars have largely stressed – was also a crucial figure in the context of the creation of the Dutch “seaborn” empire in the East and the West Indies. This part will explore the Atlantic and oceanic dimension of Grotius’ legal and political thought.

Readings/Bibliography

The bibliography for students attending at least the 75% of the classes will based on the following texts:

A. Bogues, R. Laudani, Theses for a Global History of Political Concepts, available on this website: http://aghct.org/political-concepts-thesis ;

R. Laudani, "Mare e Terra: Sui fondamenti spaziali della sovranità moderna", Filosofia politica, 3 (2015), pp. 513-530 (an English version will be available on Virtuale for attending students);

H. Grotius, Hugo Grotius, Mare Liberum, 1609-2009, Latin text and modern English translation, edited and annotated by Robert Feenstra; with a general introduction by Jeroen Vervliet, Leiden, Brill, 2009, (relevant passages from the translation of the Preface “to the Rulers and the Free Nations of the Christian World” and from chapters 1-5, chapter 8, chapter 12 will be provided in the slides and will constitute the material for the exam);

Hugo Grotius, Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty (De iure praedae), Edited and with an Introduction by Martine Julia van Ittersum, Indianapolis, Liberty Fund, 2006 (relevant passages from chapter 2, pp. 19-50; chapter 6, pp. 92-100, chapter 8, pp. 127-181, and chapter 13, pp. 391-436 will be provided in the slides and will constitute the material for the exam);

Hugo Grotius, De Jure Belli ac Pacis, translated by. F. Kelsey, Washington, Carnegie endowment for international peace, 1925 (relevant passages from Prolegomena and Book One, pp. 9-166; Book Two, chapters 2-5, pp. 186-259, chapter 15, pp. 391-408, chapter 22, pp. 546-556; Book Three, chapters 2-4, pp. 623-657 will be provided in the slides and will constitute the material for the exam);

Other materials and suggested readings (articles or book chapters) will be made available on “risorse didattiche su virtuale" section of this website in order to complement the lectures and facilitate the discussion in class, but will not be mandatory for the exam.

Bibliography for students who cannot attend classes with regularity:

R. Koselleck, "Introduction and Prefaces to the Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe", trans. M. Richter, Contributions to the History of Concepts, 6/1 (2011), pp. 1-37;

S. Chignola, “Global Spaces/Global Times: Reconsidering the History of Political Concepts”, Conceptos Históricos, Año 6, No. 9, pp. 200-221 available on this website: https://revistasacademicas.unsam.edu.ar/index.php/conhist/issue/view/10 

P.E. Steinberg, The Social Construction of the Ocean, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001;

Hugo Grotius, Hugo Grotius, Mare Liberum, 1609-2009, latin text and modern English translation, edited and annotated by Robert Feenstra; with a general introduction by Jeroen Vervliet, Leiden, Brill, 2009, (translation of the Preface “to the Rulers and the Free Nations of the Christian World” and chapters 1-5, chapter 8, chapter 12);

Hugo Grotius, De Jure Belli ac Pacis, translated by. F. Kelsey, Washington, Carnegie endowment for international peace, 1925 (Prolegomena and Book One, pp. 9-166; Book Two, chapters 2-5, pp. 186-259, chapter 15, pp. 391-408, chapter 22, pp. 546-556; Book Three, chapters 2-4, pp. 623-657);

E. Keene, Beyond the Anarchical Society. Grotius, Colonialism and Order in World Politics; Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002 (chapter 2 and 3, pp. 40-96).

M. Koskenniemi, To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth. Legal Imagination and International Power, 1300–1870, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021, chapter 4 (pp. 280-345).

Teaching methods

Lectures and discussions in class. Part of the time of the classes will be destined each week to student’s questions and comments and a special session designed as a final moment of collective discussion on the topics addressed in class will be scheduled at the end of the course.

Assessment methods

Attending students are expected to pass an oral examination, with questions aimed at assessing their knowledge of the topics, the materials and the sources discussed in class and of the readings listed in the bibliography section. Questions will also be aimed at appraising the students' critical thinking, their exposition and language skills, and their ability to trace connections between different texts and topics in order to build their argument.

The oral exam for non attending students will be aimed at evaluating their knowledge of the readings listed in the bibliography section, their familiarity with the theoretical, historical and methodological problems involved in the Atlantic and Global approach to the history of modern political thought and their ability to connect different texts and issues with an appropriate language. At any rate, non attending students or students who cannot attend classes with regularity are strongly recommended to get in touch with the professor before the exam in order to have more detailed information or to have clarifications about the texts and the issues addressed in their readings.

The following criteria will be adopted for the evaluation of both attending and non attending students:

- In order to receive an excellent final grade, students should display their capacity to correctly analyze the sources and to clearly and critically discuss about them with a proper language and a confident mastership of the issues addressed in class and in the course's bibliography.

- Good or average marks will be awarded to students who display an acceptable knowledge of the texts combined with a fair capacity to expose their content and with an overall understanding of the issues discussed in class, though with some minor imperfections and a less appropriate lexicon.

- A basic and mnemonic knowledge of the texts and of the main points addressed during classes will receive a lower or sufficient assessment.

- An unclear or significantly inaccurate exposition of the texts and the course's contents will be evaluated as insufficient to pass the examination.

This 6 CFU course can be chosen as a part of the 12 CFU Integrated Course “81861 - OCEANIC STUDIES (I.C.) (LM)". If the student has the Integrated Course (12 CFU) in his/her study plan, the final grade will result from the arithmetic average of the marks obtained in the two parts (“81719 - ATLANTIC AND GLOBAL HISTORY OF MODERN POLITICAL CONCEPTS (1) (LM)" and “81722 - INDIAN OCEAN HISTORY (1) (LM)”.

If this course is part of the integrated course Oceanic Studies, students can take first either Indian Ocean History exam or Atlantic and Global History of Modern Political Concepts exam. Students will get a grade for each module (one for Indian Ocean History and one for Atlantic and Global History of Modern Political Concepts). The final grade for the integrated course will be the average grade of the two modules.

Teaching tools

Slides with texts, summaries and other materials. The page of this course on Virtuale will be constantly used to provide additional materials, to suggest further readings or to keep a dialogue between the teacher and the class during the course’s period.

Office hours

See the website of Antonio Del Vecchio