Università Roma Tre

The course is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the most important events and issues concerning the history of Europe since 1945 up to the present. The second part is devoted to a specialized theme: the main Italian attitudes, reactions and points of view with regard to the end of the Cold War and the effects of the collapse of the bipolar order on Italian domestic politics and Italy’s foreign policy.

FIRST HALF OF THE COURSE (3 CFU)
History of Europe since 1945
Contents: 1. From War to Cold War 2. Democracy Embattled: France, Italy, and West Germany 3. Stalinism beyond the Iron Curtain 4. The Economic Boom and the Welfare State 5. Political Transformations in Western Europe in the Fifties and the Sixties 6. The Years of Chruščëv 7. The End of the European Empires 8. Gaullism in France and the Center-Left in Italy 9. Europe in Crisis: the Old Continent during the Seventies 10. Eastern Europe after 1968 11. The Transition to Democracy in Spain, Portugal, and Greece 12. The Thatcher Era 13. The Fall of the Wall and the End of the Cold War 14. The Yugoslavian crisis 15. The new Europe between integration and immigration


SECOND HALF OF THE COURSE (3 CFU)
Italy and the End of Cold War
Contents: 1) Italian politics during the Eighties; 2) Italians facing the collapse of the Berlin Wall; 3) Political parties in search of new identities; 4) The end of the Cold War and the end of the so-called “first Republic”; 5) The birth of a new political system; 6) Italian foreign policy in the new international order; 7) Italy and Europe; 8) Perspectives on present-day Italy


The first part of the course will consist of lectures, during which also photographs and footage will be employed.
The second part of the course will be structured as a specialized seminar. After a series of lectures during which the instructor will introduce the main topics of the seminar, attending students may (it is not mandatory): do one presentation in class about a book, which will be chosen from a selection provided by the instructor at the beginning of the course and, at the end of the course, write a 4000 word paper, analyzing the book chosen in the light of the analyses and discussions from the seminar.
Only for students attending the course, the assessment related to the first part of the course may take the form of a mid-term exam, to be taken during the course (esonero).
With regard to the seminar, for those students who do the presentation and submit the paper, the grade for this part of the course (which will average with the grade obtained for the first part) will be attributed on the basis of the student’s performance in the following activities: PRESENTATION: 30%; FINAL PAPER: 70%.

Books for students attending the course:
- William I. Hitchcock, Il continente diviso. Storia dell’Europa del 1945 a oggi, Roma, Carocci, 2003
- Readings assigned by instructor


Books for students not attending the course:
1. William I. Hitchcock, Il continente diviso. Storia dell’Europa del 1945 a oggi, Roma, Carocci, 2003
2. Ian Kershaw, L’uomo forte. Personalità e potere nell'Europa contemporanea, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2022