13723 - History of Contemporary Europe (1)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will have mastered the broad outline of European continental history, its political, social and cultural transformations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as relations within Europe and vis-à-vis extra-European countries. They will be able to describe such interactions in terms of dominion as well as reciprocal exchange of knowledge, goods and individuals. They will have grasped the complex criteria for periodization, possess an initial knowledge of issues debated by international historians, and have realised for themselves the welter of sources pertaining to contemporary European studies. They will be able to describe and illustrate specific instances of cultures meeting within and outside Europe (links, hybridization, conflict) understanding the multicultural contexts; they will know how to listen, understand and debate respectfully with different cultures and viewpoints, spotting the tie-ups among different disciplines.

Course contents

The first part of the course is introductory and provides the general outlines of the historical development: political, economic and social of the European continent, as well as of the interaction and circulation of peoples and of the international relations between multinational states and nation-states, from the second half of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century, focusing in the final part also on the processes of European institutional and economic unification.

A second part is monographic and in the current Academic Year is devoted to an analysis of the early postwar period in Europe, which saw profound political and institutional crises, a new geopolitics on the continent with the emergence of new states, and a phase of revolutions and counterrevolutions in which political violence and social conflicts took on particular magnitude. Starting with Wilsonian proposals and the decisions made at Versailles and imposed bt the peace treaties, attention will go to the crisis of democracies, the rise of a new internationalism and trans-nationalism, and communism, and the rise to power of fascism in Italy. On the centenary of the March on Rome, the course will take a close look at 1922 in Italy and at the long repercussions of that historical event on the continent.

In addition to an examination of the most recent historiography, the course will focus on sources and especially on analyses, reconstructions and memories relating to fascism's seizure of power writtwn by contemporaries, both opponents and protagonists of the early fascist movement, in the 1920s and 1930s.

Readings/Bibliography

For a general introduction to European History, students can use a University Textbook. We suggest Leonardo Rapone,ed.,  L'Europa del Novecento, Carocci, 2020.

Compulsory readings:

P. Dogliani- L. Gorgolini, Un partito di giovani. La gioventù internazionalista e la nascita del Partito comunista d’Italia (1915-1926), Le Monnier, 2021 (first part)

P. Dogliani, Il fascismo degli Italiani. Una storia sociale, Utet-De Agostini, 2023 (capp. 1, 2, 3, 7).

Two readings among:

P. Dogliani- L. Gorgolini, Un partito di giovani. La gioventù internazionalista e la nascita del Partito comunista d’Italia (1915-1926), Le Monnier, 2021 (parte prima, pp.1-55)

P. Dogliani, Il fascismo degli Italiani. Una storia sociale, Utet-De Agostini, nuova edizione (particolare attenzione ai capp. 1, 2, 3, 7).

Due letture a scelta:

Enzo Collotti, Fascismo, fascismi, nelle sue diverse edizioni dal 1989

P. Dogliani ( a cura di), Internazionalismo e transnazionalismo all’indomani della Grande guerra, il Mulino, 2020 ( Introduzione e saggi di Natoli, Rossini, Dogliani, Salvatici).

A cura di G. Albanese, Il fascismo italiano, Carocci, 2021 (leggere i contributi di Millan, Di Figlia, Bresciani, Albanese)

Giulia Albanese La marcia su Roma, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2006

Mimmo Franzinelli, L’insurrezione fascista. Storia e mito della marcia su Roma, Mondadori, 2022.

Fabio Fabbri, Le origini della guerra civile. L'Italia dalla Grande guerra al fascismo 1918-1921, Utet2009

Cristina Baldassini Autobiografia del primo fascismo. Ideologia politica, mentalità, memoria, Rubettino, Soveria Mannelli, 2014.

Matteo Millan, Squadrismo e squadristi nella dittatura fascista, Viella, Roma, 2014

David Forgacs, Messaggi di sangue. La violenza nella storia d'Italia, Laterza 2021

Eugenia Tognotti, La “spagnola” in Italia (1918-19), FrancoAngeli, 2015.

Jean-Marie Le Breton, Una storia infausta. L’Europa centrale e orientale dal 1917 al 1990, il Mulino, 1997

Giorgio Del Zanna, La fine dell’impero ottomano, il Mulino, 2012

Silvio Pons, I comunisti italiani e gli altri. Visioni e legami internazionali nel mondo del Novecento, Einaudi, 2021 (almeno 3 capp a scelta).

E. Hosbawn, Nazioni e nazionalismo, Einaudi, 1991

Gerd Hardach, La prima guerra mondiale 1914-1918, ( trattasi di una storia economica) Etas

Sheila Fitzpatrick, La rivoluzione russa, Sansoni, 1997

Christopher Duggan, Il popolo del Duce. Storia emotiva dell’Italia fascista, Laterza 2013.

Peter Fritzsche, Vita e morte nel Terzo Reich, Laterza, 2010

Detlev Peukert, Storia sociale del Terzo Reich, Sansoni, 1989

Johann Chapoutot, La legge del sangue Pensare ed agire da nazisti, edizione italiana Einaudi

Mark Mazower, L'Impero di Hitler, come i nazisti governavano l'Europa, edizione italiana Mondadori

Olivier Wieviorka, Storia della Resistenza nell'Europa occidentale, Ed. italiana Einaudi.

-Michael Ebner, Ordinary Violence in Mussolini’s Italy, Cambridge University Press

A selection of readings related to accounts of contemporary witnesses of the March on Rome will be indicated during the course

Teaching methods

Front classes and discussion of documents and books' chapters during the course, and eventualy vision of media.

Assessment methods

The final exam is written for those attending and oral only for those not attending.

Those who have taken at least 70 percent of the course are considered to be attending.

The first written appeal at the end of the course is reserved for frequent attendees, on a date to be determined during the two last weeks of the course: it will include questions on the topics discussed during the course.Subsequent appeals are reserved for attending  and nonattending students and will be oral only.

 See the Italian version for the evaluation.

Teaching tools

Front lessons, analysis and reading of documents, vision of media

Office hours

See the website of Patrizia Dogliani