00932 - Contemporary History (M-Z)

Academic Year 2022/2023

  • Moduli: Elena Musiani (Modulo 1) Alessio Gagliardi (Modulo 2)
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in History (cod. 0962)

Learning outcomes

Students will acquire critical knowledge of contemporary history in broad outline from the late nineteenth and on into the twentieth century. They will be able to place the main events and issues in a long-term global perspective. They will be able to discuss the major issues conditioning historiographical research. They will recognise the limits and scope of historical analysis, and become fully aware of historical turning points, discontinuities and contradictions that would-be popular history takes as unquestioned “fact” quite out of context. Students learn to detect linguistic registers, categories and complex concepts in a comparative light, as well as to appreciate the importance of such historical concepts and categories in the debated social and cultural issues. They will read history texts in at least one language besides Italian and be able to read and write using appropriate technical terminology.

Course contents

The course presents, in thirty monographic lessons, the basic topics of XIX-XX century history, from the point of view of événements and historiography.

Readings/Bibliography

1) Modern and Contemporary History (1815-2000) Textbooks for Classical or Scientific High Schools;

2) Raffaele Romanelli, Ottocento. Lezioni di storia contemporanea, Bologna, il Mulino, 2011, or Cemil Aydin, Il lungo Ottocento. Una storia politica internazionale, Torino, Einaudi, 2019;

3) Marcello Flores, ll secolo mondo. Storia del Novecento, Bologna, il Mulino, 2002 (Sections I-V) or L’Europa del Novecento. Una storia, a cura di Leonardo Rapone, Roma, Carocci, 2021.

Or, for attending students:

1) Modern and Contemporary History (1815-2000) Textbooks for Classical or Scientific High Schools;

2) PPT and other supports available on Virtuale.

Teaching methods

Lectures. Lessons will be backed by Power point.

Official language: Italian.

Assessment methods

Written or oral (in case of Covid emergency) exam. The exam includes four open-ended questions dedicated to attendings and four open questions resered to non-attendings. Time available is 2 hours.

The exam consists in a written paper (or, if oral, in 4 questions) covering the texts outlined in the programme; it aims to assess students’ critical skills and their ability to analyse key phenomena of the contemporary world.

Thorough in-depth knowledge of the topics covered in the course, together with analytical and critical skills and command of the specific language, will qualify for top marks (30-30L).

A good grasp of the topics covered in the course, together with good critical analysis and command of the specific language, will qualify for high marks (27-29).

A more mechanical and less articulate grasp, and/or correct use of language though not always appropriate, will qualify for a medium-range mark (23-26).

Weak analytical capacity and frequently inappropriate language – together with some knowledge of exam material – will receive a pass mark or little more (18-22).

Mistakes of spelling and syntax (by native Italian students) will be heavily penalized.

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

Teaching tools

A PPT will be at disposal in the teaching material on the website with the lessons discussed during the course.

Office hours

See the website of Alessio Gagliardi

See the website of Elena Musiani

SDGs

Quality education

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.