Focus of the Course is on the main topics of general history, both
European and non-European, and on the themes of identity in a world increasingly
characterized by mutual connections and interdependencies
between the components.
The ‘broad view of history’ will be the primary objective of the lessons:
themes concerning the role of public institutions and the struggles for
power will be taken into consideration and explored in-depth. These
themes will include: the decisions of sovereigns and rulers, the
organization of society, military and religious conflicts; territorial
disputes; political ideologies; but also the orientations of cultural elites and their implications in political and social life in different periods and in
different contexts; the plurisecular dynamics and trends and the various
conjunctures of the economic system.
Ample consideration will naturally be given to the epochal turning points
such as the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation, the
characteristics of the modern State, the political and economic upheavals
of seventeenth-century England, absolutism, the Age of Enlightenment,
the Atlantic revolutions of the eighteenth century: the American and the
French Revolutions; the industrial revolution and its effects on the entire
European continent.
The spirit of positivism; liberal regimes; the reign of the bourgeoisie; the
European civil war and the problems of peace; twentieth century
European totalitarianisms; world war II; the end of European dominance;
post-war politics, economy and culture in Europe; collapse of Soviet
communism and rise of new global powers.
These themes will be explored with an eye to maintaining the
appropriate balance between the fundamental historical facts, the
historiographical discussion, the moment of interpretation and a close
analysis of key words and sources.