The course deals with crucial aspects and moments of the Italian history from the end of the 19th to the 1970s within a European and global context. A special attention will be paid to the complex relations between politics and culture, as well as to the elaborations of nationalism, socialism, communism and anticommunism, fascism and antifascism.
Attending students are required to rely on notes taken over the course and to prepare two books:
E. Gentile, La Grande Italia. Il mito della nazione nel ventesimo secolo, Laterza, Roma 2006
S. Lupo, Partito e antipartito. Una storia politica della prima Repubblica, 1946-1978, Donzelli, Roma 2004
Non-attending students are required to prepare the two aforementioned books and to add one of the following:
G. Crainz, Storia del miracolo italiano. Culture, identità, trasformazioni tra anni Cinquanta e Sessanta, Donzelli, Roma
F. Focardi, Le guerre della memoria. La Resistenza nel dibattito politico italiano dal 1945 ad oggi, Laterza, Roma 2005
E. Gentile, Le origini dell'Italia contemporanea: l'età giolittiana, Laterza, Roma 2003
S. Lupo, Il fascismo. La politica in un regime totalitario, Donzelli, Roma 2000
P. G. Zunino, L'ideologia del fascismo. Miti, valori, credenze nella stabilizzazione del regime, Il Mulino, Bologna 2013.
In agreement with the teacher, the students may ask for other texts.
Learning Objectives
The course intends to provide the students with the fundamental means to deal with the main questions of the twentieth-century Italian history.
Prerequisites
It is strongly recommended to have already attended the course in contemporary history.
Teaching Methods
Taught class
Type of Assessment
The final examination is oral. It aims at assessing the acquisition of the knowledge in the history of contemporary Italy. An optional written examination, concerning the topics of the course already presented and analysed, is scheduled for attending students on the 17th April (12/13.30). The evaluation of the written examination will add between 1/30 to 3/30 to the mark of the oral examination.
Course program
Rather than presenting the long-term features of the Italian history, the course aims at investigating connections and contradictions, convergences and divergences of the Italian contemporary history with the European and global contemporary history. The political, social, and intellectual experiences of the twentieth-century Italy will be analysed within a comparative framework, critical towards nationally-focused narratives.