HISTORY OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS

This course aims to study particular collective movements that have characterized the contemporary age, as peculiar features of a rapidly changing society. It is proposed to deepen the social history and for the analysis of collective phenomena of the contemporary era.
The course is one of the core subjects in the master's degree courses in History from the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Age and ACEL. It is also among the related or additional Studies of other Master's degree courses.

Decode a social history document. Understand historical documents and learn how to develop an interpretation with a personal method of study. Understand aspects, processes and fundamental events of modern Italian, European and world history. Understand the collective dynamics of mass society. Approach to the use of certain sources for social history research.

Knowledge of the Italian language. Knowledge of the general outlines of contemporary history.

History, historiography and memory of the Italian Resistance in the context of European anti-fascist resistance during the Second World War. Its moral, social and political inspirations. The stages, geographies, subjects, forms of the Resistance as armed struggle and civil participation. The issues of violence, of the role of women in the Resistance, of the relationship between partisans and the population. The cultural and political legacy of the Resistance in Italian society and in social movements after 1945.

1. Santo Peli, Storia della Resistenza in Italia, Torino, Einaudi 2015.
2. Filippo Focardi, Santo Peli (a cura di), Resistenza. La guerra partigiana in Italia 1943-1945, Roma, Carocci, 2025.
3. One book of your choice from the following (or others to be agreed with the teacher):
Roberto Battaglia, Un uomo, un partigiano, Il Mulino, 2004
Manlio Calegari, La sega di Hitler. Storie di strani soldati (1944-1945) Editpress 2021
Chiara Colombini, Storia passionale della guerra partigiana, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2023
Filippo Focardi, La guerra della memoria. La Resistenza nel dibattito politico italiano dal 1945 a oggi, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2005
Claudio Pavone, Una guerra civile. Saggio storico sulla moralità della Resistenza, Bollati Boringhieri, 1991
Santo Peli, Storie di GAP. Terrorismo urbano e Resistenza, Torino, Einaudi, 2017
Alessandro Portelli, L'ordine è già stato eseguito. Roma, le Fosse Ardeatine, la memoria, Roma, Donzelli, 1999
Olivier Wieviorka, La Resistenza nell'Europa occidentale. 1940-1945, Torino, Einaudi, 2018
...
4. Essays and documents presented in class and available on the course Moodle page.

The examination consists of a written test in 10 short-answer questions on items 1 and 4, to be followed by an oral examination on items 2 and 3.
More information will be presented in the Learning Agreement published on Moodle at the beginning of the lessons.

oral

Lectures and seminar discussions.