Università Roma Tre

The course examines the fundamental moments and aspects in contemporary 19th and 20th century history, starting with the revolutionary risings of 1948 and the formation of the European nation states, up to recent events. Special attention will be given to World History and to framing events in a global perspective. The topics of minorities and international migrations in our age, particularly to and from Italy, will be the focus of specific in-depth analysis.
Detailed descriptions:

Credits 1-2: The general characteristics of the contemporary age. The European nineteenth century and the formation of modern political cultures. The transition from the old regime society to the rule of law. Constitutionalism. Liberalism, socialism, nationalism. Mass society. The apogee of the European projection in the world. Colonialism and imperialism. Democratic ideals. International relations from the "Concert", to arbitration, to power politics. Liberal Italy. The second industrial revolution. The elicating factors of the First World War.
Cfu 3-4: Europe 1914-1945: a continent destroys itself. Outcomes of the First World War: the triumph of nations and the disappearance of empires. The spread of the authoritarian and totalitarian contagion. Characteristics of illiberal regimes in Italy and Germany. Racism in Europe: origins and manifestations. The crisis of 1929. Towards a new European and world war. The second world war, characteristics and development. The Shoah. The world enters the nuclear age.
Cfu 5-6: The new international order after the Second World War: bipolarism, the Iron Curtain, "second world", cold war. Republican Italy. The great questions of the contemporary world: the phenomenon of migration.

TEXTBOOK: L. Caracciolo-A. Roccucci, Storia contemporanea. Dal mondo europeo al mondo senza centro, Ed. le Monnier Università 2017.

The exam program will consist of the following chapters of the textbook: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17,18, 19, 20, 21, 23.

Moreover, all students shall study one the following two books:

- E. Gentile, Il fascismo in tre capitoli, Laterza, 2009
- F. Bettanin, La Russia, l'Ucraina e la guerra in Europa. Storia e scenari, Donzelli, 2022