CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

knowledge and understandig:

Students will demonstrate an overall understanding about big issues of the 20^th century. They will develop an expertise on the political, economic and social changes of the 20^th century: institutional transitions, economic crises, processes of globalization.

applying knowledge and understanding:

Students must demonstrate the ability to relate past events and issues of the present, applying the historical knowledge of the most topical issues, particularly with respect to the relationship between institutions and citizenship; political participation; social changes, diplomatic and international cooperation and integration between different cultures and realities.

making judgement:

Students must demonstrate the ability to relate in a critical and conscious historiography and documentary sources on the twentieth century, developing original interpretations on the critical issues of the century, the connections between the history of Italian and international, on caesurae political, economic and social factors that characterize the contemporary age.

communication skills:

Through the drafting of the written papers (short essays, term papers, critical readings) and the oral discussion, students will demonstrate the acquisition of specific communication skills: mastery of vocabulary discipline, ability to understand the cause and effect relationship between historical events, of expose clearly the events of the twentieth century, to argue ideas and original interpretations on crucial points of the twentieth century, to apply their theoretical knowledge to the cultural debate on current.

learning skills:

The conduct of the two ongoing trials and the drafting of the written papers will enable students to equally distribute the workload and to develop skills of independent learning.

The course analyzes the most important events of the Contemporary History, and in particular the 20^th century. The course will start with some preliminary classes concerning the periodization of the 20^th century and the most important historiographical interpretations. The period between 1914 and 1945 will be examined in the second part of the course: the First World War, the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression, the birth of the European totalitarianism, the second World War and its consequences. The course will focus on a monographic parts: the First World War in the context of Sicily. The last period of the century will be examined in the third part of the course: the Cold War; the Palestinian issue; the fall of Communism; the rise of the UE. There are two intermediate exams about focus monographic part. The final exam consist of an oral examination about big issues of the 20^th century to verify the quality of the student’s understanding according to formative objectives.