Ateneo - UPO

The purpose of the course is to introduce the main topics about the history of the United States through a dual social and cultural perspective which is especially focused on the key landmarks concerning the historical evolution of the racial issue from the origins of slavery to the Obama presidency

For the attending students:
- Giovanni Borgognone, Storia degli Stati Uniti. La democrazia americana dalla fondazione all’era globale, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2024
- Stefano Luconi, L’anima nera degli Stati Uniti. Gli afro-americani e il difficile cammino verso l’uguaglianza, 1619-2023, Padova, CLEUP, 2023
For the non-attending students:
- Giovanni Borgognone, Storia degli Stati Uniti. La democrazia americana dalla fondazione all’era globale, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2024
- Stefano Luconi, L’anima nera degli Stati Uniti. Gli afro-americani e il difficile cammino verso l’uguaglianza, 1619-2023, Padova, CLEUP, 2023
- Paolo Bertella Farnetti, Pantere Nere. Storia e mito del Black Panter Party, Milano, Mimesis, 2019

The course introduces the main steps of the US political history in connection with three constitutive elements: the making of the nation, the colonial spread and the slave system, by proposing a focus on the history of the African-American minority in the belief that it represents a key viewpoint from which US history should be analyzed

Basic knowledge of modern history

The course will be held through frontal lectures with the use of power points by the teacher

Oral exam with questions on the books and the slides that have been faced during the course's lessons

The course will face the rise of the US nation in its main steps, from the colonial age to the Declaration of Independence and the approval of the Constitution, by keeping it in relation to the slave system in North America up to it abolition during the Civil War and the definition of the new political and economic condition concerning the emancipation of slaves during the Reconstruction Era. The course will face the history of the African-Americans in the United States from the late Nineteenth century, when the years of the Reconstruction paved the way to the making of new hierarchies taking shape in the racial segregation up to the African-American armed struggle against the steady racism in the 1960s

Upon completion of the course, students will have to know the crucial topics about the history of the United States between Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries, as well as the contemporary social, political and cultural changes concerning the racial issue. Moreover, students should acquire the skill to elaborate a cross and critical thinking on the specific themes of the history of the African-American ethnic community in the United States