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.
In order to prepare the exam, attending students are required to rely on notes taken over the course and to study one of the books of group (a) and one of the books of group (b). Non-attending students are required to study two books of the group (a) and two books of the group (b).
a)
P. Corner, Italia fascista: politica e opinione popolare sotto la dittatura, Carocci, Roma 2015
E. Gentile, Le origini dell'Italia contemporanea: l'età giolittiana, Laterza, Roma 2003
E. Gentile, La Grande Italia. Il mito della nazione nel ventesimo secolo, Laterza, Roma 2006
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
b)
F. Barbagallo, L'Italia repubblicana: dallo sviluppo alle riforme mancate, Carocci, Roma 2008
S. Lupo, Partito e antipartito. Una storia politica della prima Repubblica, 1946-1978, Donzelli, Roma 2004
G. Crainz, Storia del miracolo italiano. Culture, identità, trasformazioni tra anni Cinquanta e Sessanta, Donzelli, Roma 1996
G. Crainz, Il paese mancato. Dal miracolo economico agli anni Ottanta, Donzelli, Roma 2003
P.G. Zunino, La Repubblica e il suo passato: il fascismo dopo il fascismo, il comunismo, la democrazia: le origini dell'Italia contemporanea, Il Mulino, Bologna 2003
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. Notably, it intends to tackle and analyse the questions concerning the relations between politics and culture, also through the scrutiny of original documents and sources.
Prerequisites
It is recommended to have already passed the exam of Contemporary History.
Teaching Methods
Frontal lessons.
Further information
Attending students are requested to be regularly present regularly and to actively take part in the lessons.
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, based on 3-4 open questions and concerning the topics already presented and analysed in the course, is scheduled for attending students. 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.
The introductory part of the course will aim at critically rethinking the existing historiography, with the aim of analysing some prevailing interpretative trends about the history of twentieth-century Italy.
The second part of the course will address the processes of democratization of Giolitti's Italy and their contradictions, as well as the crisis which took place between the Great War and the ascent of fascism, by investigating the different forms of nationalism and socialism.
The third part of the course will concentrate on the political, social, and cultural dynamics which marked the Italian history in the context between the two world wars, focussing notably on fascism and antifascism, civil war and Resistance.
The fourth part of the course will deepen the costitution of the Republics of parties, with special attention to the legacies of antifascism and to the anticommunism, to the transformations and movements of the 1960s and to the terrorism in the 1970s.