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 Course  will run concurrently during its 5-weeks course.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.

Periods examined, one each per week: Europe in the "Age of Empires," 1870-1914. Europe in the Great War. Europe between the Two World Wars. Europe in the Second World World,   European Reconstruction after World War II. For each period, texts and documents will be suggested,  and historians who have best analyzed the period under consideration and opened historiographical debates will be presented.

Readings/Bibliography

Foreign students will be suggested readings in Italian and other languages and can refer to the texts in their original language.

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 written and oral only for those not attending. Students have to read 5 books or collection of articles and chapters

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 only oral.

 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