Contemporary World History and Geography, Bachelor level

1. Acquisition by students of the instruments needed to know, understand and appreciate critically the processes of change and continuity in society and contemporary politics. 2. Obtaining a critical awareness of the relationship between current events and processes and the past 3. Awareness of respect for points of view deriving from other national or cultural backgrounds 4. Ability to communicate orally using the terminology and techniques accepted in the historiographical profession 5. Ability to identify and appropriately use sources of information for historical research 6. Knowledge and ability to use the instruments of information gathering, such as bibliographical catalogs, file inventories and electronic references 7. Ability to manage resources and computer and Internet to produce historical data or history related techniques 8. Ability to organize complex historical information in a consistent way 9. Awareness of the differences in historiographical outlooks in various periods and contexts 10. Awareness of the debate and historical research are constantly under construction.

In this course we will study changes in the world over the past two centuries. The central problems of the contemporary world setting events in the coordinates of space and time will be presented. The course starts from a Eurocentric perspective, in addressing the nineteenth century, which is global in the approach to the problems of the twentieth century. Contents: PART ONE: long nineteenth century (1776-1914) 1. The first liberal revolutions: Britain and the United States The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars The Europe of the Restoration (1815-1871). Doctrinal bases. social and political Europe in the nineteenth century The age of revolution (1820-1848) The national nationalism and units (Germany, Italy) Industrialization and its social consequences: the labor movement 7. World powers (1870-1914). Domestic politics and colonial expansion PART TWO: short twentieth century (1914-1989) The Great War and its consequences The Soviet Revolution and the construction of the USSR 3. The world wars: the liberal democracy and its enemies. The rise of fascism The Second World War and its consequences The Cold War bipolar world Decolonization and the Third World The construction of Europe. The welfare state to neoliberalism The end of communism EPILOGUE: The cold war and globalization

The course is developed through theoretical and practical classes. In the first case, classes are held in the form of master classes, while the practical classes will be based on the reading and commentary of selected texts significant for the time and circumstances under study. In addition, students shall be asked questions and problems about the texts and other sources whose resolution will have to implement the competencies to be developed: ability to summarize, critical analysis, ability to understand the complexity of historical phenomena and to know recognize the local and global nature of the processes studied. Therefore, in the case of practical classes, it seeks an active learning method, in which the student is involved in their own learning and participate in it. Students receive information, but should also look for it, and so we will provide the resources and sources where to find it, study independently and use it to solve the problems. The lectures organized materials to adapt to the knowledge that is intended to get students and their expectations, transmit structured information and provide pupils with skills which will be difficult to obtain from other sources. For its part, the practical classes alternate short activities of classroom work (lectures and short exercises and discussions) with larger tasks which require a work also outside the classroom: tutoring assistance, use of resources library and reference search. In support, in practical classes visual resources and other forms of exposure, both by teachers and pupils they will be used.