Teaching code

4S001218

Teacher

Renato Camurri

Coordinator

Renato Camurri

Credits

6

Also offered in courses:

• History of late modern Europe (m) of the course Master’s degree in Tradition and Interpretation of Literary Texts
• Contemporary History (m) of the course Master's degree in History of the Arts

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

M-STO/04 - CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

Period

2 A, 2 B

Location

VERONA

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 1

Learning objectives

Analysis and understanding of complex historical processes over time (including the analysis of shorter historical times in a long-term perspective) and in space (by linking the national history with the European and international ones), capturing the complexity and articulation of historical events, while being able to identify the most significant causal nodes.

Prerequisites and basic notions

No prerequisites are required,

Program

Fascisms, anti-fascisms and resistance between Europe and the Americas.
The course aims to outline the origins and characteristics of the various phenomena of opposition to totalitarian regimes that in the interwar years emerged on a European scale and expanded in various geographical areas, taking on a transnational dimension.
In order to analyze this phenomenon, it will be necessary as a priority to define the characteristics of European totalitarian regimes and the processes underlying their establishment. Fundamental step in this path of research of the historical and cultural origins of fascism and Nazism is represented by the Great War and the processes of transformation of European societies triggered by it; processes that are manifested in their full extent in the first postwar period that will be addressed in the first block of six lectures.
The central part of the course will be devoted to the analysis of Italian Fascism, whose evolution and parable will be set against the background of European history of the period 1900-1945 and placed in relation to the story of German National Socialism. Particular attention will be paid to issues related to the relationship between fascism and culture and the influence that the Mussolini regime exerted in various European and non-European contexts.
The last block of lectures will focus on the study of antifascism, the origins of which will be reconstructed from the earliest experiences of "cultural" opposition to the fascist regime and subsequent developments. This course of analysis will highlight some certain elements that had a decisive weight in the experience of antifascism such as the generational question and the existence of different political and cultural components of antifascism. They will then examine the individual paths of some prominent personalities of Italian antifascism, the places and workshops of antifascism connected to the experience of exile. In closing, after addressing the question of European resistance, they will dwell on the Italian resistance and the question of the construction of the new democracy after 1945.
At the end of the course, the student should be able to achieve a high degree of knowledge regarding: a) the periodizations of the historical events considered, b) the events that characterize the different historical phases examined, c) the different historical processes that authoritarian and totalitarian regimes have generated, d) the historiographical interpretations related to these processes.

Program
1. The Great War and the crisis of European civilizations.
2. The causes of the conflict and its characteristics.
3. The war of the Italians.
4. Peace and the geopolitical consequences of the war.
5. The postwar period and the crisis of liberal regimes in Europe.
6. Italian fascism: origins and transformations.
7. The March on Rome and the construction of the fascist regime.
8. Nazism, fascism and authoritarian regimes in Europe.
9. Fascism's foreign policy: from the Spanish Civil War to World War II.
10. The anti-Jewish laws of 1938 and the war.
11. The war and occupation regimes.
12. The "silent conspiracy" and the origins of cultural anti-fascism.
13. Generations and families of Italian antifascism.
14. Paths and figures: Leone Ginzburg, Vittorio Foa and Gaetano Salvemini.
15. Laboratories of antifascism: Paris, New York, Mexico City, Buenos Aires.
16. The exile of Italian antifascism in the United States.
17. European Resistances and the new democracy.
18. The fall of the fascist regime and the Italian Resistance.

Required Reading

1. One book chosen from the following:

M. Isnenghi-G. Rochat, La Grande Guerra, Il Mulino, 2008 (and subsequent editions).
E. Gentile, Le origini dell’ideologia fascista, 1918-1925, Il Mulino, 2011 (and subsequent editions).
O. Wieviorka, Storia della Resistenza nell’Europa occidentale, 1940-1945, Einaudi, 2018.
P. Cooke, L’eredità della Resistenza. Storia, cultura, politiche dal dopoguerra a oggi, Viella, 2015.

2. Two books chosen from the following:

E. Gentile, Fascismo. Storia e interpretazioni, Laterza, 2002 (and subsequent editions).
E. Traverso, A ferro e a fuoco. La guerra civile europea 1914-1945, Il Mulino, 2007 (and subsequent editions).
S. Bucchi, La filosofia di un non filosofo. Le idee e gli ideali di Gaetano Salvemini, Bollati e Boringhieri, 2023.
G. Gribaudi, La memoria, i traumi, la storia. La guerra e le catastrofi nel Novecento, Viella, 2020.
S. Peli, La Resistenza in Italia. Storia e critica, Einaudi, 2004 (and subsequent editions).


Non-attending students must add to the above bibliography the volume:

R. Overy, Crisi tra le due guerre mondiali, 1919-1939, Il Mulino, 2009.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Teaching Methods
Lectures, guided tour to museums and archives, projections of movies and documentaries, lessons with external guests, seminars.
The partecipants can prepare brief paper to present in class.

Learning assessment procedures

Examination procedure: the assessment is based on an oral exam.

Evaluation criteria

Students must demonstrate their capacity in using historical concepts and the appropriate language. They must also demonstrate their ability to make connection between different historical processes, both national and international.
Questions will be based on the most important topics discussed during the lessons and suggested in the literature.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

Assessment method: a final markfrom 18 to 30/30.

Exam language

italiano