EUROPEAN AND ITALIAN HISTORY FROM 1914 TO PRESENT

N.B. This class is organised by the Ca' Foscari School for International Education (SIE). Students cannot attend classes or take exams if they are not officially enrolled in the course. For further information on the SIE Italian language courses for exchange students, please visit this webpage: https://www.unive.it/courses-exchange

The course will focus on European and Italian History between the First World War and the fall of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe (1990). Students will be able to explore broader topics related to European history as a whole, while examining the particularities of Italy within them, thus learning about the country as well as its relationship with the rest of the continent.

The course will cover a range of events and concepts, providing students with a comprehensive understanding of Italian history and its connections to the broader European context, highlighting similarities, differences, and mutual influences. Moreover, thanks to source analysis, students learn about the historical method and acquire basic historiographical concepts. Finally, they will also improve on their argumentative and presentation skills, both during the course, by discussing sources in class, and as part of their final assignment.

There are no prerequisites for this course.

The course will focus on European and Italian History between the First World War and the fall of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe (1990). Students will be able to explore broader topics related to European history as a whole, while examining the particularities of Italy within them, thus learning about the country as well as its relationship with the rest of the continent. This process aims to teach students the idea that historical events are seldom unrelated to one another and to provide a basic understanding of comparative methods.
While the course will cover an extensive overview of the period’s events, it will also focus on more theoretical questions pertaining to historiography (causality, the relationship between science and racism, the role of State’s violence, consensus…), as well as insight into general political shifts that happened in Italy and Europe (the rise of Fascism, Resistance, Europeanism…). To better involve students in the process, the course will make extensive use of cultural products from the examined period.

Students are advised to read at least one of the following texts:

Antony Best, Jussi M. Hanhimäki, Joseph A. Maiolo, Kirsten E. Schulze, International History of the Twentieth Century (London: Routledge, 2008).

Christopher Duggan, The force of destiny: a history of Italy since 1796 (London: Allen Lane, 2007).

Martin Clark, Modern Italy, 1871-1982 (London-New York: Longman, 1996).

1) As a project, students will prepare a short group presentation (about 10 minutes) on a topic that struck them during class, preferably anchoring it to one of the sources examined. Students will present their work to the rest of the class during lessons 19-20.

2) As a final exam (lesson 18), students will be required to answer a test that includes multiple-choice questions as well as one open-ended question.

written and oral

The lecturer has a duty to ensure that the rules regarding the authenticity and originality of exam tests and papers are respected. Therefore, if there is suspicion of irregular conduct, an additional assessment may be conducted, which could differ from the original exam description.

Grades will be awarded on an ascending scale starting from a pass mark (18) up to the maximum of 30 e lode (30L), according to the following criteria:

1) An initial grade awarded after the written test (60% of the final grade)
2) A grade awarded for the group presentation, integrating the initial one (40% of the grade)

Classes will be split into two sections. The first will be a “classic” lecture, framing the topic of the day and highlighting the connections between its European and Italian dimensions. During the second section (which will be shorter, about half an hour), students will discuss one or more sources relevant to the class’s topic (a snippet from a newspaper, a cartoon, a photograph, a short passage from a book). This will allow students to approach sources and begin thinking about how historians use them in a scientific manner, while also providing a “real” example of a cultural product from the time (if needed, I will provide a translation of the examined source).