The course deals with twentieth-century Italy within a European and global comparative context. A special attention will be paid to the legacy of fascism and the civil war, to the construction of the democratic institutions and to the role of the diverse political movements and parties, to the cycles of political and social conflicts, to the cultures of reform and myths of revolution, to the crisis and transformation of the party system up to date.
Attending students can hold the exam in the following way:
two written examinations over the course, to prepare on the basis of notes taken during the previous lectures and on the related parts from the book by M. Gotor, L'Italia del Novecento, Einaudi, Torino 2019;
Non-attending students are required to study one books of the group (a) and two books of the group (b).
a)
G. Amato/A. Graziosi, Grandi illusioni. Ragionando sull’Italia, Il Mulino, Bologna 2013
F. Barbagallo, L'Italia repubblicana: dallo sviluppo alle riforme mancate, Carocci, Roma 2008
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
U. Gentiloni Silveri, Storia dell’Italia contemporanea, 1943-20, Il Mulino, Bologna 2019
P. Ginsborg, Storia d’Italia dal dopoguerra a oggi, Einaudi, Torino 2006
A. Giovagnoli, La Repubblica degli Italiani, 1946-2016, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2016
M. Gotor, L'Italia del Novecento. Dalla sconfitta di Adua alla vittoria di Amazon, Einaudi, Torino 2019
S. Lanaro, Storia dell’Italia repubblicana, Marsilio, Venezia 1993
S. Lupo, Partito e antipartito. Una storia politica della prima Repubblica, 1946-1978, Donzelli, Roma 2004
P. Scoppola, La Repubblica dei partiti. Evoluzione e crisi di un sistema politico, 1945-1996, Il Mulino, Bologna 2021
b)
G. Albanese (a cura di), Il fascismo italiano: storia e interpretazioni, Carocci, Roma 2021
P. Barcella, La Lega. Una storia, Carocci, Roma 2022
M. Colucci, Storia dell’immigrazione straniera in Italia dal 1945 ai giorni nostri, Carocci, Roma 2018
M. Gotor, Generazione Settanta. Storia del decennio più lungo del secolo breve, 1966-1982, Einaudi, Torino 2022
C. Pavone, Una guerra civile. Saggio sulla moralità nella Resistenza, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 1991
S. Salvatici (a cura di), Storia delle donne nell'Italia contemporanea, Carocci, Roma 2022
A. Varsori, Dalla rinascita al declino. Storia internazionale dell’Italia repubblicana, Il Mulino, Bologna 2022
A. Ventrone, “Vogliamo tutto”. Perché due generazioni hanno creduto nella rivoluzione, 1960-1988, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2012
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, the students will be able to critically discuss the questions concerning the legacies of fascism and of the civil war, the building of democratic institutions, the challenges of socio-economic modernization and its subsequent conflicts, the political transformations, transitions, and crises in the recent context of globalization, also through the scrutiny of original documents and sources.
Prerequisites
A previous exam in contemporary history is recommended.
Teaching Methods
Frontal lessons and possible seminars.
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, based on the alleged anomaly or exceptionalism of the Italian history. A special attention will be devoted to the legacies of the fascist regime and of the civil war, to the transformations of the Italian society and the representative democracy and its crises up to date. These issues will be analysed in a comparative synchronic perspective, considering the long post-war period, the Western economic and demographic boom and its discontents, the competition between capitalist and communist systems in the Cold War, the decolonisation and the process of European integration, the globalization and its backlashes between East and West before and after 1989-1991.
Among others the class will investigate:
the fascist experience in the European and global context – The Second World War and the civil war – The long Italian post-war period: the myth of Resistance and the Republican constitution – The Christian Democratic season, reconstruction and anticommunism – the Europe-building and the Cold War – the Western economic and demographic boom – The turning point of 1956, decolonization and the Italian left – Centre-left politics of reforms – Transformations of the Catholic world, the Church and its relations to the Italian State – Social and cultural watershed of 1968 and its legacy – The global 1970s: reforms and compromise, crises and terrorism in Italy – The 1980s, a new Italian miracle? – The crisis of the party system in international context of the collapse of Soviet communism – Northern League as a new local and national phenomenon – The ascent and success of Berlusconi e his cultural and political model – The economic recession and the demographic breakdown – Towards Euro: potentials and failures – Immigration, globalization and transformations of Italy into a multicultural society – Technicians and populists vis-à-vis the new challenges, from the 2008 crisis to the 2020 pandemic.