Università Roma Tre

The course aims at offering the essential knowledge concerning the modifications of economy, society and institutions in the last two centuries, in order to provide students with few reading keys of contemporary modernity. The origin being the industrial revolution and the passing from the absolute State to the liberal-constitutional one and the end being globalization and the closing of the East-West bipolar era. In a few introductory lectures the course deals with methodological issues related to the interdisciplinary approach in historical research and to the periodization in socio-economic and political-institutional approach.
In a second section, the course deals with the crucial points of the Twentieth century history: the drastic breaking down determined by the Great World War in the cultural history of Europe where Europe is no longer the world history theatre; the war heritage; the Twentieth century genocides and the dark side of modernity, with a special attention to the “forgotten genocide” of Armenians; the United States depression and its consequences on western democracies, first among others Germany; totalitarian regimes, according to a comparative approach; the Second World War; the post-war international scenarios; Cold War, decolonization, détente; republican Italy from foundation to the Seventies crisis.

G. Sabbatucci, V. Vidotto, Storia contemporanea. L’Ottocento, Laterza, Roma-Bari
G. Sabbatucci, V. Vidotto, Storia contemporanea, Il Novecento, Laterza, Roma-Bari
L. Azara, L’uso politico del corpo femminile, Carocci, Roma 2016
E. J. Hobsbawn, Il Secolo breve 1914-1991, Bur Rizzoli, Milano