OVERVIEW

This course aims to promote basic historical skills and give students a good knowledge of historical phenomena of contemporary age, being able to grasp the complexity and the changes over time of political-institutional, economic-social and cultural factors. The course highlights the knowledge of the main facts and events in European and world history, placing them within the framework of the evolution of the international system and the interactions between the various areas of the world.

AIMS AND CONTENT

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will be expected to be able to critically assess the interrelations of historical processes in different areas of the world; to come into contact with the main historical sources and interpretations; and to develop critical awareness of ongoing political and economic changes, both domestically and internationally, and of the role of international organizations.

PREREQUISITES

Knowledge of Italian.

Basic knowledge of geography.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures.

36 hours of lectures, equal to 6 CFU.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The program of the course is divided into twenty macro-areas of study, each examining in depth a specific collection of events with the aim of retracing two centuries of Italian, European and global history. From the European Restoration, following the Napoleonic wars, the course will follow up until present day. In addition, the programme offers an overview of the great political, social, economic and cultural transformations that have followed in the main arrears of the world (Europe, Americas, Asia, Africa) during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, taking in consideration also fundamental references to the great revolutions (American Revolution, French Revolution and Industrial Revolution) with their deep influences on the entire contemporary era.

Specifically, the following topics will be covered: 1) The Congress of Vienna and the Restoration; 2) The crisis of the Ancien Régime and the liberal, democratic and national revolutions (1820-1848); 3) The Italian and German unification; 4) The Oriental Question; 5) The extra-European world: the Taiping Revolution in China; the opening of Japan in the fifties; the revolution of Meiji; the Civil War in the United States of America; 6) Imperialism and colonialism; 7) Italy of Giolitti; 8) From the Russian Revolution of 1905 to the First World War; 9) The Russian Revolution; 10) The Treaties of Paris and their consequences; 11) Postwar and Fascism; 12) The Republic of Weimar; Hitler and the Nazism; 13) The Second World War; 14) The post-war period and the Cold War; 15) Italian Republic; 16) Decolonization; 17) Large international post-war crisis. The Middle East knot; 18) The process of European unification; 19) The fall of communism. The contemporary world; 20) Regionalism and the new international order

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Students must be prepapred about the topics’ lectures. It can be used the following textbook: Alfredo Canavero, Storia contemporanea, Pearson, 2019.

Further information on the following book: Umberto Morelli, Storia dell’integrazione europea, Edizioni Guerini, Milano 2011; Guido Formigoni, Storia della politica internazionale nell’età contemporanea, il Mulino, Bologna, 2006; Giovanni Montroni, Scenari del mondo contemporaneo dal 1815 ad oggi, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2005.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

LARA PICCARDO (President)

ANDREA CATANZARO

MARIA ELEONORA GUASCONI

GUIDO LEVI

FRANCESCO PIERINI

DANIELA PREDA

LESSONS

LESSONS START

October 2019.

Class schedule

CONTEMPORARY HISTORY A

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Written in Italian.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Written exam in Italian with open questions, divided into two parts: 19th century and 20th century. The exam is successfully completed only if the two parts are both sufficient.

Exam schedule