- Docente: Giuliana Laschi
- Credits: 10
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Forli
- Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in International relations and diplomatic affairs (cod. 6651)
-
from Sep 22, 2025 to Dec 10, 2025
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
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.
One of your choice:
Gisela Bock, Le donne nella storia europea, Laterza.
Paul Corner, La dittatura fascista. Consenso e controllo durante il Ventennio, Carocci.
Deplano V. e Pes A., Storia del colonialismo italiano, Carocci, 2024.
Di Sanzo, Falcucci, Mancosu, L'Italia e il mondo post-coloniale, Le Monnier, 2023.
Ertola, Emanuele, Il colonialismo degli italiani. Storia di un'ideologia, Carocci, 2022.
Judt T., La nostra storia (Dopoguerra. Come è cambiata l’Europa dal 1945 a oggi), Laterza 2017, disponibile anche in e-book (anche edizione Mondadori 2007).
Sara Lorenzini, Una strana guerra fredda. Lo sviluppo e le relazioni nord-sud, Il Mulino.
Lupo S., La mafia. Centosessant’anni di storia tra Sicilia e America, Roma, Donzelli.
Mark Mazower, Le ombre dell'Europa. Democrazia e totalitarismi nel XX secolo, Garzanti.
Marco Mugnaini (a cura di), ONU 1945-2025. Studi su un sistema globale, FrancoAngeli, 2025.
Perazzoli J., Per la pace del diritto. Woodrow Wilson e la sua eredità, dalla Grande Guerra allo shock della globalizzazione, Carocci, 2022.
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
Attending students:
During the course, there will be 2 graded written assessments, designed to check both individual learning and classroom work, as well as a final oral exam. These assessments – reserved for students who have actually attended classes (the instructor reserves the right to collect student signatures to verify attendance) – will consist of two tests, each with 10 semi-open questions. The allotted time is 45 minutes.
Dates of the two written tests:
In the written tests, both knowledge and critical thinking will be evaluated, based on the textbook and class notes.
Textbook pages for each test:
Test I: pp.3-281; 323-342
Test II: pp. pp. 292-319; 346-614
Grading criteria for the written tests:
Tests will be graded out of 30 points. A test is considered passed if the student obtains at least 18 out of 30.
If both written assessments are passed, the student may access the oral exam, which will evaluate the historical reasoning acquired and critical reading skills based on the chosen monograph and pages 616–710 of the textbook.
Grades from the partial tests remain valid until the first exam session in June 2026.
If one of the written tests is failed, the student must retake and pass the test during the first session in January before accessing the oral exam.
If both tests are failed, the student must take the final written exam, consisting of 10 semi-open questions on the entire institutional section. The duration is 45 minutes.
-
Access to the oral exam is not permitted without passing the written tests.
-
Both written tests must be passed in order to take the oral exam.
-
Online registration is required to take the oral exam.
-
For the final oral exam, students must bring the textbook and the studied monograph.
Non-attending students:
-
The exam for non-attending students consists of a written test with 10 open-ended questions on the textbook/institutional section and an oral exam assessing understanding of the same content.
-
The written test duration is 45 minutes.
-
The oral exam takes place on the same day as the written test or the following day if the number of candidates is high.
Teaching tools
Powerpoint, Movies
Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.
Office hours
See the website of Giuliana Laschi
SDGs




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