96813 - International History of the Contemporary Era (A-L)

Academic Year 2023/2024

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Forli
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in International relations and diplomatic affairs (cod. 8048)

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing an adequate knowledge of contemporary political-institutional history and at analyzing major historical changes of contemporaneity that took place at European and extra-European level, starting from the French Revolution up to the fall of Berlin wall (1989).

The acquired analytical tools will allow to improve the understanding of the relations existing between domestic and foreign policies of the concerned countries as well as to consolidate the knowledge of major international processes and their interconnection with national histories. The study of the main events of XIX and XX centuries in a diachronic perspective will allow acquiring key elements for interpreting current events.

Course contents

Lectures retrace chronologically the main junctures of the contemporary political history (from 1848 revolutions to 1980s), using a compared analysis of the major historical events affecting the European context and the main extra-European realities. After the introduction of major political, economic and social processes characterizing the beginning of contemporary era and leading to World War I, the analysis will focus on European and extra-European political history in the inter-war period and will deal with the global context of bipolarity and Cold War.

Readings/Bibliography

All students (both attending and non-attending the classes) must study the compulsory textbook and one monograph among those suggested.

Compulsory:

Giovanni Sabbatucci, Vittorio Vidotto, Il mondo contemporaneo, Laterza, Bari-Roma, 2019, fino a p. 614.

One of your choice:

Alberto Mario Banti, Il Risorgimento italiano, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2008 (escluse le pagg. 145-222)

Gustavo Corni, Breve storia del nazismo 1920-1945, Bologna, Il Mulino 2015.

Emanuele Ertola "Il colonialismo degli italiani. Storia di un'ideologia" Carocci, 2022.

Eric Goldstein, Gli accordi di pace dopo la Grande guerra (1919-1925), il Mulino, 2005

Tony Judt, La nostra storia (Dopoguerra. Come è cambiata l’Europa dal 1945 a oggi), Laterza 2017, disponibile anche in e-book (anche edizione Mondadori 2007)

Dane Kennedy, Storia della decolonizzazione, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2016

Lupo Salvatore, La mafia. Centosessant’anni di storia tra Sicilia e America, Roma, Donzelli

Arnaldo Testi, Il secolo degli Stati Uniti, Il Mulino, Bologna.

Teaching methods

30 two hours classes
Official language: Italian

The course is at the beginning of university studies and generally it is attended by many students. The professor uses frontal lessons during which students are invited to further deepen the topics discussed and to express their opinion. The professor also uses power point to highlight the main elements of the historical analysis as well as photos and movies helping students to contextualize course contents.

Assessment methods

For attending students:

Students who have been attending the written examinations, will have to undergo a spoken exam at the end of the course. The final spoken exam should be attended on the institutional and monographic part

Teaching tools

Powerpoint, Movies

Office hours

See the website of Giuliana Laschi

SDGs

Quality education Responsible consumption and production Peace, justice and strong institutions Partnerships for the goals

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