Programme

The course is divided in two parts:
a) the first is basic and it is devoted to an historical introduction to the contemporary world
b) the second is more advanced and it is devoted to the history of Italy in the Cold War

PART ONE (6 CFU)
This part introduces to the history of 19th and 20th Century, to methodological issues (periodization, political use of history, memory, sources), to the greatest phenomena (revolutions and political ideas, industrial development, mass society), and to the main historical interpretations of contemporary world.
Main topics: 1. Introduction to Historical Knowledge 2. The Contemporary Age: An Appraisal looking from the Today World 3. The Demographic Revolution 4. The Industrial and Environmental Revolution 5. The Communication Revolution 6. The Cultural Revolution: The Individual and the spread of culture 7. The Social Revolution: Peasants, Workers, Middle Class, Women 8. The Political Revolutions 9. The Rise of Contemporary “Political Sphere”: Reactionaries, Conservatives, Liberals, Radicals, Socialists 10. Nationalism: Unification in Italy and Germany 11.The Role of Religion: Secularization and De-Christianization 12. The Age of Modernization Begins 13. A Second Acceleration of Progress. The Second Industrial Revolution 14. The Birth of Mass Society 15. Colonial Imperialism 15. Reshaping Europe: The Surfacing of America and Asia 16. World War I 17. The Age of Totalitarianisms: Crisis of Democracy and Economic Collapse 18. Bolshevik Communism 19. Fascism 20. Nazism 21. World War II 22. The Cold War 23. Decolonization and Third World 24. The Origins of Welfare 25. The Affluent Society 26. A Post-Modern Age?

PART TWO (2 CFU)
This part introduces to the political history of contemporary Italy and to her deep connection with Cold War bipolarity: from the break of the Anti-Fascist Alliance in 1947 to the «nationa solidarity« governments of the 1970s.
Main topics: 1. National and International Dimension in the «Total» Cold War 2. The Heritage of Fascism and War (1943-1946) 3. The Birth of the Italian Political System and the Beginning of Cold War (1947-1949) 4. The Conflicts of the Centrismo Age (1950-1955) 5. Beyond Centrismo (1956-1961) 6. Peaceful Coexistence and Center-Left (1962-1968) 7. The Years of the «Strategy of Tension» and of the Crisis of the West (1969-1973) 8. «National Solidarity » (1974-1978)

Students will have to analyse the issue of the Italian state difficulties from the national unification to the present (2 CFU)

Core Documentation

Part One
○ G. SABBATUCCI – V. VIDOTTO, Storia contemporanea. L’Ottocento, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2017, pp. 418 (with the exception of chapters I-IV)
○ G. SABBATUCCI – V. VIDOTTO, Storia contemporanea. Il Novecento, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2017, pp. 488

Part Two
○ S. CAVAZZA – P. POMBENI, Introduzione alla storia contemporanea, Bologna, Il Mulino 2012, pp. 456 (the book is available also in the online Pandoracampus platform, with supplementary resources, and interactive contents)
○ S. CASSESE, Governare gli italiani. Storia dello Stato, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014, pp. 408

Reference Bibliography

No additional bibliografic reference

Type of delivery of the course

Lectures and multi-media presentation.

Attendance

Attendance is not mandatory

Type of evaluation

An obligatory written multiple choices test (30 questions) will verify the qualification on the history of the 19th, and 20th Century (and the beginning of the 21st). The test is based on Sabbatucci and Vidotto’s books and cannot be passed without an in-depth knowledge of a good text-book on the subject). Information on the main historical interpretations of contemporary history, its main features and events (Introduzione alla storia contemporanea) and on the part about Italy in the Cold War and the history of the Italian State will be object of an oral exam. During the COVID-19 emergency phase, exams will be held according to art.1 of Decreto Rettorale n°. 703 5 May 2020.