Ateneo - UPO

Global history from 1870 to the present.

Textbook Tommaso Detti, Giovanni Gozzini, Storia Contemporanea. Il Novecento (vol. 2), Pearson, 2021 or, alternatively: A. M. Banti, L'età contemporanea dalla Grande Guerra ad oggi, Laterza, 2009. In addition to the manual, a choice of one of the following monographs: - Mauro Forno, Informazione e potere. Storia del giornalismo italiano, Laterza, 2012. - Francesco Cassata, Molti, sani e forti. L'eugenetica in Italia, Bollati Boringhieri, 2006. - Marco Armiero, Roberta Biasillo, Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, La natura del duce. Una storia ambientale del fascismo, Einaudi, 2022. - Christopher Browning, Uomini comuni. Polizia tedesca e «soluzione finale» in Polonia, Einaudi, 2022. - Paolo Soddu, La via italiana alla democrazia. Storia dell'Italia repubblicana 1943-2013, Laterza, 2012. - Gianluca Falanga, La diplomazia oscura. Servizi segreti e terrorismo nella Guerra fredda, Carocci, 2021. - Silvano Montaldo, Donne delinquenti. Il genere e la nascita della criminologia, Carocci, 2019. - Paolo Fonzi, Oltre i confini. Le occupazioni italiane durante la Seconda guerra mondiale (1939-1943), Le Monnier, 2020. - Emanuele Ertola, Il colonialismo degli italiani. Storia di un’ideologia, Carocci, Roma.

Aim of the course is to enable the students to: - pinpoint the major turning points in the timeline of the studied period, - to read a historical monograph, - to understand and critically analyze historical sources, - to discuss with the community of learners their ideas and doubts. The minimum result expected from the students is the acquisition of general notions related to the global history of the contemporary world and of the keywords that help conceptualize and describe events and processes, the grasping of basic concepts of this period and of the major chronological partitions of the 20th century (Paris Treaties, Great Depression, Cold War, World Wars, rise of neo-liberalism, collapse of the communist regimes). A more advanced result of the course is the achievement of a deeper and solid grasp of concepts, events, structures, chronological partitions, relations between events, together with a manifest capacity to used them in different contexts, to understand the different scholarly approaches and points of view of the authors who have dealt with them.

General knowledge of contemporary history acquired in secondary school.

Lectures. During the lectures the lecturer will invite the students to take part in discussions with their colleagues

Aims and content of the course meet the reguiriments established by the decree DM 616/2017 and its attachments for the validation of the 24 CFU needed to take the exam for the area D (Metodologie e tecnologie didattiche).

The exam consists of an oral exam, divided into two parts. A first part on global general history from 1870 to the present day, based on the recommended manuals and the content of the lessons: the grade obtained represents 50% of the overall grade. A second part dedicated to the in-depth monograph, chosen by the student from among the volumes proposed or agreed in advance: the vote on the in-depth part contributes to the remaining 50% of the overall mark of the exam.

Lectures will follow the outline below. Unit 1. Introduction I: the long 19th century, revolutions, industrialization (ch. 1-9) Unit 2. Introduction II: nationalism and imperialism 1870-1914 (ch. 1-9) Unit 3. The First World War: operations on different fronts, cultures of violence, social and institutional change (ch. 10-11) Unit 4. The Versailles postwar order: collapse of Empires and new Wilsonian order (ch. 12) Unit 5. Revolutions in the Russian Empire and the foundation of the USSR (ch. 13). Unit 6. The crisis of capitalism in Europe and the USA (ch. 14-15). Unit 7. Hitler's Germany and the challenge to the Versailles order (ch. 16). Unit 18. The Second World War I: causes and main phases (ch. 17) Unit 9. The Second World WarII: societies at war, the National Socialist New Order, the Holocaust, the resistance, war outside Europe (ch. 18). Unit 10. Postwar, reconstruction and cold war (ch. 19-20) Unit 11. Decolonization and conflicts outside the Western world (21-22) Unit. 12. Destalinization, the Khrushchev thaw, Italy in the 50ies and 60ies (ch. 19.23) Unit 13. Crisis and fall of real socialism (ch. 24) Unit 14. The 90ies in Italy and Europe (ch. 25-26) Unit 15. A world without a center (ch. 27).

Students who have achieved basic skills will be able to understand the main events and chronological partisions of the contemporary history and to illustrate them in clear form. Students who will have achieved advanced skills will be able to apply key political, social and cultural categories to understand to other historical contexts, including the present world. This description is consistent with the SUA (Annual Report Overview) of the CdS, section A4.b2 (especially the area "Area Storica").