85103 - History of Contemporary Italy (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will have gained knowledge of the specificities that characterise contemporary Italian history and in particular of the social, political, economic transformations, in addition to those related to the mentality and customs, of Italy in the 20th century. Students will have acquired the methodological competences necessary for reaching an adequate level of critical and interpretative awareness in the field of contemporary Italian history and will be capable of reading specific sources and autonomously planning their research.

Course contents

1. Italy in the age of revolutions: Risorgimento, unification, nationalism

2. Italy in the age of revolutions: an ever incomplete industrial takeoff

3. Liberalism and State-building

4. World War I

5. The rise and consolidation of Fascism

6. Fascist Wars and World War II

7. Students’ Presentations 1 - Nationalism and national unification:

• Group A - Lucy Riall, Garibaldi. Invention of a Hero, 2007, Introduction and chapter 1
• Group B- Maurizio Isabella, Risorgimento in Exile: Italian Émigrés and the Liberal International in the Post-Napoleonic Era, 2009, chapter 5, Cosmopolitan Patriots: Freedom and Civilization as Global Processes, pp. 92-108
• Group B - Short selection from A Cosmopolitanism of Nations: Giuseppe Mazzini's Writings on Democracy, Nation Building, and International Relations, ed. by Stefano Recchia, Nadia Urbinati, Princeton University Press 2009
• Group D - Eric Hobsbawm, The Sicilian Fasci and Peasant Communism, in Primitive Rebels

8. Students’ Presentations 2 (The Fall of Liberalism and the rise of Fascism:

• Group A - Ilaria Pavan, War and the Welfare State: The Case of Italy, from WWI to Fascism, «Historia contemporánea», 61, 2019, pp. 835 ss
• Group B - Marcello de Cecco, The economy from Liberalism to Fascism, in Liberal and fascist Italy 1900-1945, ed. by Adrian Lyttelton, Oxford University Press 2002, pp. 62-82
• Group C - Christopher Duggan, The internalisation of the cult of the Duce: the evidence of diaries and letters, in The cult of the Duce: Mussolini and the Italians, ed. by Stephen Gundle Christopher Duggan, Giuliana Pieri, 2013, pp. 129-143
• Group D - Antonio Gramsci, selection from Prison notebooks (about 20 pages)

9. Mass parties and the Cold War

10. The economic “boom”

11. 1968 and the crisis of the 1970s

12. Students’ Presentations 3 - Postwar:

• Group A - Pasquale Saraceno, IRI: Its Origin and its Position in the Italian Industrial Economy (1933-1953), «The Journal of Industrial Economics», Vol. 3, 3, 1955, pp. 197-221
• Group B - Eloisa Betti, Gender and Precarious Labor in a Historical Perspective. Italian Women and Precarious Work Between Fordism and Post-Fordism, «International Labor and Working-Class History», 2016, 89, pp. 62 - 83
• Group C - John M. Foot, Mass Cultures, Popular Cultures and the Working Class in Milan, 1950-70, «Social History», Vol. 24 (2), 1999, pp. 134-157
• Group D - Giovanni Gozzini, Italian Communism, in The Cambridge History of Communism, vol. II, pp 597-618

13. The end of the “First Republic” and European integration

14. The parable of the “Second Republic”

15. Students’ Presentations 4 - Long-term perspectives:

• Group A - Tullio De Mauro, Per la storia linguistica dell'Italia repubblicana, «Italica», Vol. 88, 1, 2011
• Group B - Gianni Toniolo, An Overview of Italy’s Economic Growth, and/or Giovanni Iuzzolino, Guido Pellegrini, and/or Gianfranco Viesti, Regional Convergence, in The Oxford Handbook of the Italian Economy Since Unification, edited by Gianni Toniolo, 2013
• Group C - Mariuccia Salvati, The Long History of Corporatism in Italy: A Question of Culture or Economics?, «Contemporary European History», volume 15, 2, 2006 , pp. 223-244
• Group D - Donna Gabaccia, “Italian history and gli italiani nel mondo”, part I, «Journal of modern Italian studies», Vol.2 (1), 1997, pp. 45-66, and/or part II, «Journal of modern Italian studies», Vol.3 (1), pp. 73-97

Readings/Bibliography

1. Nationalism and national unification

Group A - Lucy Riall, Garibaldi. Invention of a Hero, 2007, Introduction and chapter 1

Group B- Maurizio Isabella, Risorgimento in Exile: Italian Émigrés and the Liberal International in the Post-Napoleonic Era, 2009, chapter 5, Cosmopolitan Patriots: Freedom and Civilization as Global Processes, pp. 92-108

Group B - Short selection from A Cosmopolitanism of Nations: Giuseppe Mazzini's Writings on Democracy, Nation Building, and International Relations, ed. by Stefano Recchia, Nadia Urbinati, Princeton University Press 2009

Group D - Eric Hobsbawm, The Sicilian Fasci and Peasant Communism, in Primitive Rebels

2. The Fall of Liberalism and the rise of Fascism

Group A - Ilaria Pavan, War and the Welfare State: The Case of Italy, from WWI to Fascism

«Historia contemporánea», 61, 2019, pp. 835 ff.

Group B - Marcello de Cecco, The economy from Liberalism to Fascism, in Liberal and fascist Italy 1900-1945, ed. by Adrian Lyttelton, Oxford University Press 2002, pp. 62-82

Group C - Christopher Duggan, The internalisation of the cult of the Duce: the evidence of diaries and letters, in The cult of the Duce: Mussolini and the Italians, ed. by Stephen Gundle Christopher Duggan, Giuliana Pieri, 2013, pp. 129-143

Group D Gramsci, selection from Prison notebooks (about 20 pages)

3. Postwar

Group A - Pasquale Saraceno, IRI: Its Origin and its Position in the Italian Industrial Economy (1933-1953), «The Journal of Industrial Economics», Vol. 3, 3, 1955, pp. 197-221

Group B - Eloisa Betti, Gender and Precarious Labor in a Historical Perspective. Italian Women and Precarious Work Between Fordism and Post-Fordism, «International Labor and Working-Class History», 2016, 89, pp. 62 - 83

Group C - John M. Foot, Mass Cultures, Popular Cultures and the Working Class in Milan, 1950-70, «Social History», Vol. 24 (2), 1999, pp. 134-157

Group D - Giovanni Gozzini, Italian Communism, in The Cambridge History of Communism, vol. II, pp 597-618

4. Long-term perspectives

Group A - Tullio De Mauro, Per la storia linguistica dell'Italia repubblicana, «Italica», Vol. 88, 1, 2011

Group B - Gianni Toniolo, An Overview of Italy’s Economic Growth, and/or Giovanni Iuzzolino, Guido Pellegrini, and/0r Gianfranco Viesti, Regional Convergence, in The Oxford Handbook of the Italian Economy Since Unification, edited by Gianni Toniolo, 2013

Group C - Mariuccia Salvati, The Long History of Corporatism in Italy: A Question of Culture or Economics?, «Contemporary European History», volume 15, 2, 2006 , pp. 223-244

Group D - Donna Gabaccia, Italian history and gli italiani nel mondo, part I, «Journal of modern Italian studies», Vol.2 (1), 1997, pp. 45-66, and/or part II, «Journal of modern Italian studies», Vol.3 (1), pp. 73-97

Teaching methods

The course is made of both lectures and seminars and requires active participation on the part of students. Lectures are divided in 4 parts, each followed by students’ presentations engaging directly with the text and using powerpoint. In order to organise presentations, the class will be divided into 4 groups.

Assessment methods

For attending students:

Active participation in discussions in class +

Presentations (in groups, on the texts in the Bibliography section) +

1 essay of approximately 4000 words on a subject agreed upon with the professor

The grade assigned to the paper will be based on:

- selection of the topic and its relatedness with the course content

- ability to identify relevant bibliography

- critical analysis

- clarity in structure and aims

- language proficiency.

Non attending students are expected to study the following texts and pass an oral exam:

John Foot, Modern Italy, 2003

John Foot, The Archipelago. Italy since 1945, 2018, chapters 5, 6, 7, and Conclusion

David Forgacs, Italy’s Margins. Social Exclusion and Nation Formation since 1861, 2014 / Margini d’Italia. L'esclusione sociale dall'unità ad oggi, 2015

The grade assigned to the oral exam will be based on the knowledge and critical analysis of these texts. Non attending students are invited to email the professor before sitting the exam.

Teaching tools

Slide presentations.

Reading materials, except for monographs for non attending students, will be provided by the teacher in digital format.

Office hours

See the website of Bruno Settis