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CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

CODE 57036
ACADEMIC YEAR 2022/2023
CREDITS
  • 10 cfu during the 2nd year of 8768 SCIENZE INTERNAZIONALI E DIPLOMATICHE (L-36) - GENOVA
  • SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINARY SECTOR M-STO/04
    LANGUAGE Italian
    TEACHING LOCATION
  • GENOVA
  • SEMESTER 1° Semester
    PREREQUISITES
    Prerequisites
    You can take the exam for this unit if you passed the following exam(s):
    • International and Diplomatic Sciences 8768 (coorte 2021/2022)
    • MODERN HISTORY 57119
    Prerequisites (for future units)
    This unit is a prerequisite for:
    • International and Diplomatic Sciences 8768 (coorte 2021/2022)
    • HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 57026
    TEACHING MATERIALS AULAWEB

    OVERVIEW

    The course aims to provide critical tools and skills for a thorough knowledge of contemporary world history of the 19th and 20th centuries, bringing the student closer to the use of documentary sources and the complexity of historiographic interpretations.
    
    During the course, thematic seminars will be organized on contemporary Europe.

    Individual and group papers and participation in simulations and role-playing games are planned. In the academic year 2022-2023 a monographic part will be dedicated to the prospects for peace in a Ukraine in a historical perspective.

    AIMS AND CONTENT

    LEARNING OUTCOMES

     At the end of the course the student is able to: - master the main thematic nodes of contemporary history from 1815 to the present day in Italy, in Europe, in the world; - know the basic methodological tools for historical analysis; - develop critical judgment skills; - elaborate studies on specific themes and historical periods; - expose and argue with appropriate vocabulary researches of a historical nature.

    AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

    The course aims to provide the student with:
    
    * Basics of events, cultures and transformations in Italy, Europe and the world in contemporary age
    
    * Specific insights into the most important historiographic developments that characterized the 19th and 20th centuries
    
    * Direct knowledge of historical sources
    
    The course also aims to teach students:
    
    * An approach to the interpretative and critical dimension of historiographic research
    
    * Methodological knowledge and skills adequate to prepare and present individual papers on specific themes of contemporary history

    PREREQUISITES

    No prerequisites.

    TEACHING METHODS

    The course will take place in presence, with frontal lessons.
    Attending students will be involved in group research and in presenting short reports on a current topic.
    During the course will be organized and recommended thematic seminars.

    To access, students must follow the rules indicated by the University:

    - reserve a seat in the classroom on the website https://easyacademy.unige.it/portalestudenti; when booking you will also be asked for a declaration of absence of symptoms and close contacts with positives;

    - access the spaces with Greenpass and equipped with a surgical mask, keeping the distance;

    - follow the instructions of the reception staff;

    - always keep the same place in the classroom with the mask on, frequently sanitize your hands, do not crowd into common areas and bathrooms.

    SYLLABUS/CONTENT

    PROGRAM
    
    From modern history to contemporary history
    
    Notes on the American Revolution. From confederation to federation
    
    Notes on the French Revolution. State and nation
    
    Industrial Revolution and Communications
    
    Europe in 1815 - The Vienna Congress - Territorial modifications
    
    The European Balance System
    
    Country and nationality
    
     1820-21, 1830-31, 1848 Revolutions in Europe
    
    Independence of Spanish colonies in Latin America
    
    Doctrine of Monroe
    
    France from Charles X to Louis Philippe d'Orléans
    
     Independence of Belgium - The independence of Greece 
    
    The Eastern Question
    
    The French conquest of Algeria
    
    Egypt of Mehemet Alì and the occupation of Syria
    
    Palmerston's policy
    
    The issue of the Straits - The London Convention of 1841
    
    Notes on social and economic transformations in the mid-eighties
    
    Free exchange and protectionism - Cobden, List
    
    Abolition of Corn legislation
    
    Opium War in China and Nanjing Treaty
    
    The German unification process 
    Zollverein
    
    Bismarck, Cavour, Napoleon III
    
    Prussia's wars against Denmark, Austria
    
    Franco-Prussian War - Creation of the German Empire
    
    The process of Italian unification
    
    Moderate and revolutionary
    
    Mazzini, Garibaldi, Cattaneo
    
    The First War of Independence
    
    Second War of Independence - Creation of the Kingdom of Italy

     

    Europe in the 1950s - The Crimean War - The Paris Conference of 1856
    
    Napoleon III's Mediterranean Policy
    
    Third War of Independence
    
    Italian colonial policy
    
    US territorial expansion in the first half of the nineteenth century
    
    Texas question
    
    US-Mexico War
    
    Secession War in the United States
    
    Japan's opening in the Fifties - The Meij Revolution
    
    The modernization and the process of expansion of Japan
    
    Chinese-Japanese and Russian-Japanese wars
    
    Europe between 1870 and 1890 - From liberty to protectionism
    
     Nationalism
    
    Bismarck's policy
    
    The Balkan war in the mid 1970s
    
    The Congress of St. Stephen and the Congress of Berlin
    
    The "Triplice" Alliance
    
    Europe at the turn of the 20th century: social, economic and political situation
    
    Colonialism and imperialism. The division of the world and the contrasts of imperialism in Asia and Africa
    
    Opposite alliances and militarization
    
    Russia 1905 - End of absolutism
    
    Revolution of Young Turks
    
    Balkan wars 1912-1913 - Moroccan crises
    
    Towards the First World War. Storiographic Interpretations
    
    World War I
    
    The Society of Nations
    
    Russian Revolution
    
    The period between the two wars
    
    Stalinian period
    
    Fascist Italy
    
    Locarno Conference
    
    The 29th Crisis
    
    Stresa Conference
    
    Nazi Germany
    
    The Ethiopian War
    
    The advent to Franco's power in Spain
    
    Anschluss's attempts
    
    Munich Conference
    
    Pact Molotov-Ribbentrop
    
    US neutrality law: from Johnson's Act to Lend Lease
    
    
    World War II
    
    Conferences of the Three Great: Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam
    
    Question of Germany
    
    Question of Poland
    
    
    Italy after World War II: party system, institutional referendum, 1948 elections, centrist governments, Trieste issue
    
    Stalin's "two camps" policy
    
    The creation of the Cominform. The outbreak of Yugoslavia in 1948
    Doctrine of containment, roll-back and massive retaliation, "flexible response"
    
    Truman's Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin Block, NATO
    
    The Atomic: From the Baruch Plan to the Arms Race. The first agreements on the limitation of nuclear weapons. Salt I and Salt II
    
    
    The launch of the European integration process
    
    Brussels, OECE, Council of Europe
    
    The birth of the European Communities
    
    
    The center-left in Italy
    
    1968 in Italy and in the world
    
    The period of terrorism
    
    The end of the first Republic
    
    
    Decolonization notes
    
    The Indian case
    
    The Algerian case
    
    Indochina and the Vietnam War
    
    
    Cuba: from Batista to Fidel Castro
    
    Cuba's Missile Crisis
    
    De Gaulle Europe. The contrast with Kennedy
    
    Berlin Crisis. The construction of the Wall
    
    
    European integration: from the Treaties of Rome to our day
    
    The Hague Conference, The 1970s crisis, the European Parliament elections, the draft Treaty of 1984, the Maastricht Treaty
    
    Enlargement and attempts at institutional reform
    
    
    Stalin's death and start-up
    
    The 20th Congress of the PCUS and the Kruscev era
    
    Insurrections in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia
    
    The fall of the Berlin Wall
    
    
    China from the proclamation of the Republic to this day. Period between the two wars: Mao, Ciang-Kai-Schek, civil war, long march, Japanese invasion.
    The birth of the People's Republic, the two Cine
    The progressive detachment from the USSR
    The cultural revolution
    Deng Xiao Ping
    
    
    Afghanistan: from the postwar period to the Soviet invasion
    
    
    Sudan between 800 and 900
    
    
    The Rwanda crisis
    
    
    Sykes-Picot, Hussein-MacMahon, the Balfour statement.
    
     The period between the two wars in Palestine
    
     The birth of the State of Israel
    
    Nasser and the crisis of the Suez Canal
    
    Arab-Israeli wars

    RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

    For the institutional part, the students must prepare the following manual:
    
    

    Alfredo Canavero, Storia contemporanea, Pearson, 2019

    For the monographic part ad hoc texts will be included on aulaweb
    
    The non-attending student will have to report on one of the following volumes:

     

    Europa e mondo

    • Gianni Silei, I fantasmi della golden age. Paura e incertezza nell’immaginario collettivo dell’Europa occidentale (1945-1975), FrancoAngeli 2019
    • Aleksandr Solženitsyn e D. Silvestri, Nel primo cerchio, Voland 2018
    • Le sfide della pace. L’ONU e l’Italia per una World Community (1945-2015), Padova, Cedam, 2017
    • Lara Piccardo, Ai confini dell’Europa. Piccola storia della Crimea contesa, Bari, Cacucci, 2017
    • Simona Merlo, Georgia. Una storia fra Europa e Asia, Beit 2017
    • John Harper, La guerra fredda. Storia di un mondo in bilico, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2017
    • Sara Lorenzini, Una strana guerra fredda. Lo sviluppo e le relazioni Nord-Sud, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2017
    • Marcello Flores, Il genocidio degli armeni, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2017
    • Angelo D’Orsi, 1917. L'anno della rivoluzione, Laterza 2016
    • Forcellese, Franchi, Macchia, La fine del Comunismo in Europa. Regimi e dissidenze, 1946-1989, Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli, 2016
    • Vittorio Criscuolo, Il Congresso di Vienna, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2015
    • Leonardo Campus, I sei giorni che sconvolsero il mondo. La crisi dei missili di Cuba e le sue percezioni internazionali, Mondadori 2015
    • Marco Clementi, Il diritto al dissenso. Il progetto costituzionale di Andrej Sacharov, Roma, Odradek ed., 2002


    Italia 

    • La svolta del 1938. Fascismo, cattolicesimo e antisemitismo, a cura di Andrea Riccardi e Gabriele Rigano, Guerini e Associati, Milano 2020
    •  Christian Goeschel, Mussolini e Hitler. Storia di una relazione pericolosa, Bari, Laterza, 2019
    • Daniela Preda, Alcide De Gasperi: European Founding Father, Brussels, Peter Lang, 2017
    • Nicola Pedrazzi, L’Italia che sognava Enver. Partigiani, comunisti, marxisti-leninisti: gli amici italiani dell’Albania popolare (1943-1976), Bestaeditrice, 2017
    • Piero Craveri, L’arte del non governo. L’inarrestabile declino della Repubblica, Venezia, Marsilio, 2016
    • Agostino Giovagnoli, Il caso Moro. Una tragedia repubblicana, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009
    • Luca Micheletta, La resa dei conti: il Kosovo, l’Italia e la dissoluzione della Jugoslavia (1939-1941), Roma, Edizioni Nuova cultura, 2008

    TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

    Exam Board

    DANIELA PREDA (President)

    GUIDO LEVI (President Substitute)

    LUCA BARBAINI (Substitute)

    ALDO MARIO GORINI (Substitute)

    MARIA ELEONORA GUASCONI (Substitute)

    LARA PICCARDO (Substitute)

    LESSONS

    LESSONS START

     Lessons start: 19 September 2022

    The lessons will take place in presence.

    To access, students must follow the rules indicated by the University:

    - reserve a seat in the classroom on the website https://easyacademy.unige.it/portalestudenti; when booking you will also be asked for a declaration of absence of symptoms and close contacts with positives;

    - access the spaces with Greenpass and equipped with a surgical mask, keeping the distance;

    - follow the instructions of the reception staff;

    - always keep the same place in the classroom with the mask on, frequently sanitize your hands, do not crowd into common areas and bathrooms.

    Class schedule

    CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

    EXAMS

    EXAM DESCRIPTION

    The exam is in part written (the nineteenth) and partly oral (the twentieth century) and involves questions both on the institutional part and on the texts of in-depth. The oral part, on average, lasts around 15-20 minutes.
    Attending students can attend a written exam in itinere in the nineteenth century.
    For attending students, the oral report presented during the course is evaluated. For non-attending students, an in-depth study will be chosen among the proposals published du aulaweb.

    ASSESSMENT METHODS

    The Commission is designated by the Department Council and chaired by the course professor. The evaluation is based mainly on the knowledge of the subject, but also on the quality of the exposure, the correct use of the specialized lexicon and the critical reasoning ability on the study carried out.

    Exam schedule

    Date Time Location Type Notes
    15/12/2022 09:00 GENOVA Orale
    17/01/2023 09:00 GENOVA Orale
    09/02/2023 09:00 GENOVA Orale
    30/05/2023 09:00 GENOVA Orale
    15/06/2023 09:00 GENOVA Orale
    13/07/2023 09:00 GENOVA Orale
    07/09/2023 09:00 GENOVA Orale

    FURTHER INFORMATION

    Students with certification of ASD, disability or other special educational needs are advised to contact both the contact person Prof. Aristide Canepa (aristide.canepa@unige.it), and the teacher, at the beginning of the course, to agree on teaching and examination methods that, in compliance with the objectives of the teaching, take into account the individual learning methods and provide suitable compensatory instruments.