00932 - Contemporary History

Academic Year 2018/2019

  • Docente: Paolo Capuzzo
  • Credits: 12
  • SSD: M-STO/04
  • Language: Italian
  • Moduli: Paolo Capuzzo (Modulo 1) Toni Rovatti (Modulo 2)
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Philosophy (cod. 9216)

    Also valid for First cycle degree programme (L) in Philosophy (cod. 0957)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student knows the specific characters of contemporary history and, in particular, the social transformations and cultural policies of the twentieth century. It can understand the main issues relating to the contemporary.

Course contents

The first module is organised in a series of lectures which will present the most fundamental topics of contemporary history.

Subjects of the lectures will be the following topics:

Birth of capitalism and protogloalisation

The French Revolution and the birth of a "new politics"

Boundaries of citizenship in the 19th century: gender, class, and race

States and nations in the long 19th century

Colonial empires in the 19th century

The origin of the working class movement, of socialism and marxism

Cultural trends and the discovery of the inconscious at the turn of 20th century

The first world war

The Soviet revolution and the communist internationalism

Fascisms in Europe

From the Second World War to the Cold War

The Decolonisation process

The "golden age" in Europe

Crisis and transformation of global capitalism in the 1970s and 1980s

The global disorder

 

The second module provides a journey through the "transitions" in 20th century European history: fundamental turning points on the economic, political and cultural level, in which national and transnational geographies and representations are modified within global processes, marked by political violence.

The class will be organised in the following topics:

- The transition category

General overview of the meanings, topics and timing of transitions from the end of the 18th century to the present, through the critical examination of historiography

- 1945 and post-war period

The transition from war to peace, change of borders and reconstruction, affirmation of democracy, the new balances of the cold war on a political and economic basis, the anti-fascist paradigm as the center of European identity and memory

- The 70s

Economic crisis and redefinition of capitalism, end of dictatorships, decolonization and season of movements, terrorism and political violence, the strategy of tension and italian slaughter in the international framework.

- 1989 and the collapse of the socialist model

End of bipolarism, overcoming ideological representations, a new prospect of war: the Balkans, the antitotalitarian paradigm as the new center of European memory

- Transitional justice as a model of analysis

Relationship between trial and historical reconstruction, Transitional justice vs Political justice, South Africa, Spain and South America’s experiences, Eastern Europe and former communist countries, Italian case

 

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography of the second module

The list is intended as reference platform for the topic that will be dealt in class:

Oltre il 1945. Violenza, conflitto sociale, ordine pubblico nel dopoguerra europeo, a cura di E. Acciai, G. Panvini, C. Poesio, T. Rovatti, Roma: Viella 2017

Le radici della crisi: l'Italia tra gli anni Sessanta e Settanta, a cura di L. Baldissara, Roma: Carocci, 2001

Parole e violenza politica. Gli anni Settanta nel Novecento italiano, a cura di G. Battelli e A.M. Vinci, Roma: Carocci, 2013

The politics of retribution in Europe: World War II and its aftermath, edited by I. Deaák, J. T. Gross, T. Judt, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000

Elster J., Chiudere i conti. La giustizia nelle transizioni politiche, Il Mulino, Bologna 2008

L'Europa e le sue memorie. Politiche e culture del ricordo dopo il 1989, a cura di F. Focardi e B. Groppo, Roma: Viella, 2013

La grande cesura. La memoria della guerra e della Resistenza nella vita europea del dopoguerra, a cura di G.Miccoli, G. Neppi Modona, P. Pombeni, Bologna: il Mulino, 2001

La transizione come problema storiografico. Le fasi critiche dello sviluppo della modernità (1494-1973), a cura di P. Pombeni, H.G. Haupt, Bologna : Il mulino, 2013

T. Judt, Postwar. La nostra storia 1945-2005, Bari-Roma: Laterza 2017 [ed. org. 2005]

M. Marzower, Le ombre dell'Europa. Democrazie e totalitarismi del XX Secolo, Milano: Garzanti, 2009

P. P. Portinaro, I conti con il passato. Vendetta, amnistia, giustizia, Milano: Feltrinelli, 2011

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

Teitel R.G., Globalizing transitional justice, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2014

A. Varsori, Le relazioni internazionali dopo la guerra fredda (1989-2017), Bologna: Il Mulino, 2018

Teaching methods

There will be a series of lectures. Active participation of students is encouraged.

Assessment methods

The exam for the first module is writtent. Students have to answer to 8 question on the topics of the course in 30 minutes.

In order to pass the written exam an accurate of the following chapters of Banti's books:

 

A. Banti, L'età contemporanea : dalle rivoluzioni settecentesche all'imperialismo

capp. 1, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24

A. Banti, L'età contemporanea. Dalla Grande Guerra a oggi,

capp. 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

 

The exam for the second module is oral.

Attending students will choose two volumes from A list

+ one text from B list

Non-attending students will read:

- Mark Marzower, Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century, London, Allen Lane: The Penguin Press, 1998

+ a couple of texts from A list

A List

* Tony Judt, Postwar. La nostra storia 1945-2005, Laterza 2017 – parte I

+ Oltre il 1945. Violenza, conflitto sociale, ordine pubblico nel dopoguerra europeo, a cura di Enrico Acciai, Guido Panvini, Camilla Poesio Toni Rovatti, Roma: Viella 2017

* Tony Judt, Postwar. La nostra storia 1945-2005, Laterza 2017 – parte III

+ Parole e violenza politica. Gli anni Settanta nel Novecento italiano, a cura di G. Battelli e A.M. Vinci, Roma: Carocci, 2013

* Tony Judt, Postwar. La nostra storia 1945-2005, Laterza 2017 – parte IV

+ L'Europa e le sue memorie. Politiche e culture del ricordo dopo il 1989, a cura di Fiilippo Focardi e Bruno Groppo, Roma: Viella, 2013

B List

Nei tribunali: Pratiche e protagonisti della giustizia di transizione nell'Italia repubblicana, a cura di Cecilia Nubola e Giovanni Focardi, Bologna: il Mulino, 2015

Pier Paolo Portinaro, I conti con il passato. Vendetta, amnistia, giustizia, Milano: Feltrinelli, 2011

Teitel R.G., Globalizing transitional justice, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2014

Teaching tools

Projector in order to show slides which summarise the main content of the lecture. Use of movies in order to present some subjects and have a discussion with students.

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Capuzzo

See the website of Toni Rovatti