The course provides students with the skills to understand and critically reflect on events, processes, junctures and interpretations of the 20th century: a century apparently marked by the West's unchallenged assertion on a global scale but actually marked by movements of criticism, opposition and contestation to its hegemonic project, the effects of which are visible today in the current phase of global instability and conflict.

At the end of the course, students become aware of the transnational character of events and historical processes at the roots of the current global world, they recognise the central role played by subjects once considered marginalised by history, if not located 'outside' it (working classes, feminist movements, anti-colonial movements, migrants, etc.), they learn to deconstruct the 'ideological' characteristics of so-called Western civilisation and its universalist claims and, finally, to read the contemporary world from alternative and anti-Eurocentric angles.

In this sense, the overall aim of the course is to provide students with analytical keys to search the past not for a regular succession of events, but for the unexpressed possibilities of history and what they still have to say to the present. A method that can be applied to any historical epoch and not only to the contemporary age and, therefore, particularly useful for teaching history at any level.

The course provides students with the essential tools and knowledge to master the history of the 20th century through an analysis of the political, social, economic, mental and cultural transformations that took place in the last century on a global scale.

In particular, starting from the imperial and global projection of the West, the lectures address the transformations of a political, social and cultural model based on the intertwining of the nation-state, liberal democracy, market economy and welfare state and the challenges to which it has been subjected within and beyond its borders.

The course dwells, on the one hand, on how this model's claim to hegemony has achieved undeniable results in terms of economic prosperity and the advancement of civil, political and social rights (especially in certain parts of the world), but, on the other, on how this model has also been imposed through wars, colonial rule and mass exterminations or, otherwise, has been the subject of negotiation, reworking if not open contestation/subversion by non-Western populations. Emphasising the links between the different histories of the 20th century, the course intends to focus on how this model has been challenged, internally, by social struggles of a multiple nature (feminist and LGBTQ movements, movements for racial emancipation, migratory movements, etc.) and, externally, by anti-colonial and nationalist struggles of various extractions, up to until the formation of a new, unstable global order opened by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the triumph of neoliberalism. The end of history, announced by the neoconservative philosopher Francis Fukuyama in 1989 at the collapse of the Soviet Union in the name of a finally pacified and unified world, has not been still achieved.  

The main themes addressed will be:

- The invention of the West

- Early globalisation and imperialism

. Socialism, feminism and anti-colonial movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries .

. The First World War and the crisis of individualism and liberalism

- The Bolshevik revolution:

- Fascism and Italian colonialism

- The Great Depression and class struggles in the United States

. Totalitarianisms and the response to the crisis of liberalism

- The Second World War

- The Shoah and the Arab-Israeli conflict

- The Cold War and the end of ideologies

- The consumer society and the American Great Society

- Decolonisation

- Anti-systemic movements: feminist, Afro-American and student movements and the 1968

- The new critical pedagogy of Ivan Illich and Paulo Freire

. The long crisis of the 1970s

- Neoconservatism and neoliberalism

- The collapse of the USSR and the new (unstable) global (dis)order

No bridging courses are required.

1.  Knowledge and understanding. The students will develop a wide knowledge of the main political, social and cultural structures and transformations of contemporary societies, through the acquisition of theoretical skills related to a global history approach.
Students acquire this basic knowledge through attending lectures, studying the texts discussed in the classroom and watching documentaries and historical films.

2. Applying knowledge and understanding. The students will be able to adopt a critical approach to historical analysis through a transnational and comparative perspective.
2.1. Those skills will be acquired through class discussion and confrontation on texts and videos.

3. Making judgements: critical reflection on the main junctures in the history of the 20th century by comparing and connecting national histories, with the aim of grasping the reasons, characters and consequences of phenomena in different historical periods and contexts.

3.1. This skill will be applied in classroom discussions with the lecturer and colleagues, during the viewing of historical documents and in the preparation of the final examination.

4. Communication skills: students are called upon to interact in the classroom by means of questions and exchanges with fellow students and the teacher.
4.1. This skill will be practiced in the classroom through debated and tests.

5. Learning skills: students are required to adopt a critical learning combining knowledge and critical reflection, in order to be able to achieve independent thinking and judgement.

5.1. Skills to be enhanced through argumentation with the teacher and fellow students.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

A self-assessment test will be given to the students at the end of the first half of the course.

Teaching

Lectures, class discussions, seminars with external scholars, support of multimedia materials.

The course will follow some specific monographic paths within the more general history of the 20th century. Students must therefore learn to connect the two levels, the general and the monographic, in order to grasp the specificity of historical interpretations on certain themes and contexts.

Innovative teaching methods

The course will focus on a case-study on the rise of critical pedagogy against the backdrop of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Attendance

Attendance is not required.

Course books

In order to pass the exam, students must study the following handbook

Handbook

T. Detti, G. Gozzini, Storia contemporanea. Il Novecento (II volume), Pearson, 2021 (until ch. 17)

Assessment

Written exam of 5 open questions. Exam lenght: 60 minutes.

The exam will be graded with excellent marks as it proves: the student's possession of good critical and in-depth study skills; the ability to link together the main themes addressed in the course; the use of appropriate language with respect to the specific nature of the discipline.

The exam will be graded with good marks as it proves: the student's possession of a mnemonic knowledge of the contents; a relative critical capacity and the ability to connect the topics dealt with; the use of appropriate language.

The exam will be graded with satisfactory marks as it proves: the student's attainment of a minimal knowledge of the topics dealt with, even in the presence of some formative gaps; the use of inappropriate language.

The exam will be graded with negative marks as it proves: difficulty in the student's orientation in relation to the topics dealt with in the examination texts; formative gaps; the use of inappropriate language.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

The professor is available on zoom or during the office hours to support non attending students.

Attendance

Attendance is not required.

Course books

In order to pass the exam, students must study the following handbook

Handbook

T. Detti, G. Gozzini, Storia contemporanea. Il Novecento (II volume), Pearson, 2021 (until ch. 17)

In order to give non-attending students the opportunity to compensate for what is done during the lectures, the following materials referring to the same contents of the programme are indicated in order to support student learning at home:

- A.M. Banti, Le questioni dell'età contemporanea, Laterza, 2013 (pp. 100-315) - (recommended but not compulsory reading)

- Slide of the lecturer's lessons uploaded on Blended

Assessment

The assessment process is the same of the attending students.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.