Programme

The acquisition of tools needed to understand the XIX and XX centuries will be realized through a programme divided in three parts.
In the first one, with the aid of the history manual, the basic knowledge about the development of contemporary world, about the main processes of cultural, economic, political, institutional and social transformations will be acquired. This part will also describe the key turning points and some historiographical junctions. In the second part the analysis will focus on WW1, its global dimension as watershed between the 19th and the 20th century. In the third part the study will deal with the elaboration of the idea of peace, as put forward by pacifist movements, in particular the women’s pacifism, and how it held before the deflagration of the conflict.
The acquired knowledge, verified in the relevant exams, should give evidence of the critical ability in understanding the complexity of problems the relevance of specific aspects of events in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Core Documentation

Giovanni Sabbatucci e Vittorio Vidotto, Contemporary History. XIX Century (excluding chapters I-IV), Laterza ed.
Giovanni Sabbatucci e Vittorio Vidotto, Contemporary History. XX Century, Laterza ed.
Oliver Janz, 1914-1918. The Great War, Einaudi

Reference Bibliography

No additional bibliografic reference

Type of delivery of the course

The course consists of frontal lessons with audiovisual aids. Lessons are the means to acquire the fundamental knowledge needed to achieve the training objectives. In order to improve the fruition of course contents include the projection of period images and audiovisual documents.

Attendance

Frequency is not compulsory but recommended taking in to account the interactive elements of the lessons and the exposition of audiovisual documents.

Type of evaluation

The evaluation will be carried out in two distinct parts: the first one foresees a test on topics treated in the two manuals of contemporary history and included in the syllabus, the test will consist of 30 questions with pre-set multiple answers, covering both the XIX and XX centuries. The test platform is Moodle and candidates have 20 minutes to answer the questions. In March a simulation will be carried out to offer the students the opportunity to familiarize with the platform and the testing method. The minimum score to pass the test is 20 points. The test is a compulsory prerequisite to undergo the second part of the examination, the oral test. The candidates have one year lapse to take the oral test once they have passed the written test. The written test takes place few days before each examination session and candidates may freely choose when to carry it out, in case the test is not passed it is possible to repeat it in any of the examination sessions. The evaluation includes then a second part: the oral test on the topics of the syllabus in order to assess the knowledge of contents, the clarity of exposition and the synthesis ability. For the students who attended the classroom lessons a test on the XIX century is planned in April while the test on the XX century will be carried out in May. The overall evaluation will take into account both scores, the one for the written test as well as the one for the oral test.