Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing basic information on Italian history from 1815 onwards. Peculiar historical turning points will be analyzed in a wider contest including European and over-European events.
The course aims at - leading students to achieve, besides basic notions, the comprehension of general political and strategic international situations; - to recognize the origin of political choices in the past as well in present times; - to act with a sounder understanding in present-day world.

Program

Following a chronological line, the course will examine the different social, political and economical sides of the analysed period. The comparison with the situation of other countries will allow the students to place the Italian ‘case’ in a wider contest and to carry out comparisons and evaluations of the choices in international politics.
The monographic course focuses on a main issue in Europe in the first half of the last century, that is the compatibility between totalitarianism and Christianity: not so much for the case of Bolshevism − which, owing to its profession of atheism and its religious persecutions, was unanimously condemned by all Churches − as for the cases of Fascism and National Socialism, which on the contrary stated themselves as defenders of tradition and religion. With them, both the Catholic Church in Italy and the Protestant Churches in Germany sought to establish relationships, dialogue and collaboration, although a large number of believers strongly opposed − they too in the name of faith − such totalitarian regimes. «For Christian consciences, the conflict between the primacy of Christ and the primacy of Caesar was a dramatic experience, and for some it proved an occasion for reflecting on the meaning of totalitarism and the danger of fundamentalism of Church and State» (E. Gentile).
Textbooks:
General part
The knowledge of general history is required from 1815.
G. Sabbatucci, V. Vidotto, Storia contemporanea, vol. I, L’Ottocento e vol. II, Il Novecento, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2008 (or more recent editions)
Monographic course
Emilio Gentile, Contro Cesare. Cristianesimo e totalitarismo nell’epoca dei fascismi, Feltrinelli, Milano 2010

Examination Methods

Written admission test concerning only the general program of the textbook; oral test on the monographic course.
The exam (general part + monographic course) is to be carried out in the same examination session.