81718 - Europe in World History (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2021/2022

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in History and Oriental Studies (cod. 8845)

Learning outcomes

Through direct contact with some specific research paths students will be able to apply research techniques and methodologies, as well as to show capacity of a critical use of sources and literature. Students will show awareness of the research problems in a wide series of topics drawn from migration history, history of ideas circulation, material exchange and consumption patterns, global labour history, social protests, transnational mobilizations processes, power forms and resistance strategies.

Course contents

Word History, Europe and some entanglements

The course will tackle some theoretical and methodological aspects concerning a world-historical approach to European contemporary history: How to study Europe and contemporary European history with reference to analytical frames drawing on World history?

In a second step, the course will focus on European migration history from a global perspective. Particular attention will be devoted to different forms of migration in relation to the social and political impact exerted on the societies involved. The topic will be handled through case studies of anarchist migration between the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century that students will be asked to present in class.

The third and last part of the course will focus on the impact of decolonization and social movements upon the shaping of political cultures and the understanding of democracy in Europe from the early 1960s until the early 1980s. How antiimperialist and anticolonial criticism, student protests and women's movements addressed democracy in Europe and how European left-wing groups and parties reacted to the rising challenges will be illustrated and discussed addressing case studies presented by students.

Readings will be presented either individually or in small groups of students that will be organized week by week accordingly to the program.

Readings/Bibliography

Included in the bibliography list students find all texts considered or quoted during the course.

Roberto M. Dainotto, Europe (in theory), Durham, Duke University Press, 2007

Dan Diner, Cataclysms. A history of the twentieth century from Europe's edge, Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press 2008

Tony Judt, Postwar. A history of Europe since 1945, New York : Penguin Press, 2005

S. Hirsch, L.van der Walt (eds.), Anarchism and syndicalism in the colonial and postcolonial world, 1870-1940 : the praxis of national liberation, internationalism, and social revolution, Brill, Leiden 2010.

Donna R. Gabaccia and Franca Iacovetta (eds.), Women, gender, and transnational lives: Italian workers of the world, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2002.

Marc Matera, Black London. The imperial metropolis and decolonization in the twentieth century, University of California press, Oakland 2015

Michael Goebel, Anti-imperial metropolis. Interwar Paris and the seeds of Third World nationalism, Cambridge university press, New York 2015

Christoph Kalter, The discovery of the Third World. Decolonization and the rise of the New Left in France,1950-1976, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2016

Jeffrey J. Byrne, Mecca of revolution: Algeria, decolonization, and the Third World order, New York, Oxford University Press 2016

Samantha Christiansen, Zachary A. Scarlett (eds.), The Third World in the global 1960s, New York, Berghahn Books, 2015

Martin Klimke,Jacco Pekelder, Joachim Scharloth (eds.), Between Prague Spring and French May : opposition and revolt in Europe, 1960-1980, New York-Oxford 2011

Thomas Borstelmann, The 1970s. A new global history from civil rights to economic inequality, Princeton University Press, Princeton 2011

Jacques Rupnik (ed.), 1989 as a political world event. Democracy, Europe and the new international system in the age of globalization, Verso, London-New York 2014.

Following book is mandatory literature for not-attending students:

Dan Diner, Cataclysms. A history of the twentieth century from Europe's edge, Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press 2008.

 

 

Teaching methods

The course is organized in a mixed form consisting of lectures and seminar moments. Students are asked to participate actively by reading and preparing class presentations of the assigneed articles, essays or book chapters to be discussed in class, as well as writing short papers in due time.

Short papers - to be sent to: worldhistory.papers@gmail.com - are scheduled as follows:

10.11 Sebastian Conrad, Enlightenment in Global History. A Historiographical Critique, in American Historical Review, 117(4):999-1027 · October 2012

17.11 Discussion of chapters from Constance Bantman and Bert Altena (eds.), Reassessing the Transnational Turn. Scales of Analysis in Anarchist and Syndicalist Studies, PM Press, Oakland, 2017: Introduction by C. Bantman & B. Altena; D. Turcato, Nations without borders; B. Altena, A Networking Historian; I. Felici, Anarchists as Emigrants. The chapters will be assigned in the first week of the class.

24.11 Discussion of chapters selected from Peter Cole, David Struthers, and Kenyon Zimmer (ed.), Wobblies of the World: A Global History, Chicago: Pluto Press, 2017: D. Pinsolle, Sabotage...; M. Murphy on J. Larkin and J. Connolly and from Donna R. Gabaccia and Franca Iacovetta (eds.), Women, gender, and transnational lives: Italian workers of the world, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2002: J. Guglielmo, Italian Women's Proletarian Feminism...; C. Waldron Merithew, Anarchist Motherhood... . The chapters will be assigned in the first week of the class.

1.12 Testimonies as sources: Discussion over two different kind of testimonies: 1) Stuart Hall, Life and Times of the first New Left, New Left Review, 61 (2010), 177-196; 2) Christiane Klapisch-Zuber and Michelle Zancarini-Fournel, A community of women in prison during theAlgerian War. Christiane Klapisch-Zuber interviewed by Michelle Zancarini-Fournel, in "Clio. Women, Gender, History", Issue 39, 2014, pp. 216-30. Historiographical articles: 1) L. Whitfield, The French military under female fire: The public opinion campaign and justice in the case of Djamila Boupacha, 1960-62, “Contemporary French Civilization”, 1996, 1, pp. 76-90; 2) Ch. Kalter, From local to global and back. Third World and new radical left in France, Journal of Global History (2017),12, pp. 115–136.

13.12 Discussion on chapters selected from Jacques Rupnik (ed.), 1989 as a political world event. Democracy, Europe and the new international system in the age of globalization, London-New York, Routledge, 2014: G. Ekiert, R. Foa, Civil Society; J. Rupnik, From the Revolutions of 1989 to democracy fatigue...; J.F. Huchet, 1989 and the advent of state capitalism in China; M. Mendras, Russia and the quest for lost power. The chapters will be assigned in the first week of the class.

Assessment methods

Following instructions on the final exams concern both modules (12 CFU). There are two alternative ways to take the exam:

1. Attending students are required to participate actively to all classes and must regularly write short papers (500 words) on the reading texts listed in the class programm in due time; they will further write a 4000 words final paper on one of the following areas:

  • History of international communism in the 20th century (Capuzzo)
  • Political impact of migration flows and social movements (Tolomelli)

Students are required to choose a specific subject within one of this twor areas with the advise of one of the two professors (Paolo Capuzzo and Marica Tolomelli).

2. Not-attending students are required to pass a written test with prof. Capuzzo (first module of the course) and an oral exam with prof. Tolomelli on the book by Dan Diner, Cataclysms. A history of the twentieth century from Europe's edge, Madison, Wis. 2008 (second module).

They also have to write a final paper (4,000 words) on one of the topics handled with during the course. The subject of the final paper should be decided in accordance with the teacher.

The final grade will result from the evaluation of all aspects concerning the course: active participation in class; accuracy and punctuality in delivering the due papers; accuracy in oral presentation and academic writing; capability to deepen and master topics addressed during the course;ability to identify relevant bibliography; critical analysis; clear and logical structure of the final paper.

Proper language and the ability to critically analyze relevant topics will lead to a good/excellent final grade

Acceptable language and the ability to resume relevant topics will lead to a sufficient/fair grade.

Insufficient linguistic proficiency and fragmentary knowledge of relevant topics will lead to a failure in passing the exam.

This 6 CFU course is part of the 12 CFU Integrated Course “World History (C.I.) (LM)". If the student has the Integrated Course (12 CFU) in his/her study plan, the final grade for not-attending will result from the arithmetic average of the marks obtained in the two parts (“World history: theory and methodology" and “Europe in World History"). For attending students the final grade will be assigned by the professor with whom the subject has been agreed (either Capuzzo or Tolomelli).

 

Teaching tools

Pc; uploaded texts; power point presentations. 

Office hours

See the website of Marica Tolomelli

SDGs

Quality education Reduced inequalities

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