History

The early modern period saw considerable changes in the shape of warfare and in the nature of armed forces and the state, a process some historians have described as a military revolution. Yet the increasing pressures of war brought about considerable social, economic, and political breakdown, as rulers overburdened both their armed forces and their domestic subjects. This course examines how western European states organized and conducted war between the late 16th and the early 18th century, and consider what effects this had on political stability. The focus is not only on some of the great powers but also upon some minor states who punched above their weight on the international stage.

This course examines the history of the Graeco-Roman world during the first millennium BCE: from the Greek Early Iron Age to the rise of the Roman Empire. The main topics include material culture, the Greek city-states, the Persian Wars, Greek politics and theater, Athenian imperialism, ancient daily life, mythology and religion, Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic kingdoms, and the Roman Republic and Empire (about 70/30% Greece/Rome). While the focus is on Greece and Rome, attention will also be paid to their interaction with neighboring cultures such as Persia and Anatolia, as well as to the reception of the Classical world up until today.  

In this course, students study the defining features of British society, politics, and culture in the period 1880-1990; the dominant historiographical traditions defining this field; and the relevant and appropriate key primary sources.

This course introduces Asian, European, and American material from the late nineteenth century to nearly the present day, concentrating on social and cultural themes such as industrialization, colonialism, science and race, technology and war, computers and global telecommunications and biotechnology and the human genome project. It is taught as a series of cases illustrating important events and multiple themes. The proposition that modern science and technology have been 'socially constructed', reflecting political and cultural values as well as the state of nature, is examined closely. The course includes theoretical material and an empirical focus.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The title of the course is "FEMMINISMS." Women’s thinking and movements, in Europe, in the Americas, in the Arab context, in southern Africa and in the Asian context are analysed in chronological order, but also showing the deep connections that were established between the various areas of the world. Alongside some thematic reconstructions, starting from the American Revolution and the French Revolution and the publication of the first "manifestos" of contemporary feminism, the lectures analyze particularly important texts and experiences still hard to define within the scope of “classical” history (centered upon the West and its successive “waves”) of the feminisms. At the end, the students understand the complexity of the females thinking and movements in their peculiarity and in a transnational and global perspective. Students acquire in-depth knowledge of the origins and development of women's movements in Italian Early Modern and Contemporary history, through methodological investigations which allow them to research autonomously.

This course surveys the history of Europe and the Mediterranean world from the 12th to the 15th centuries. The course takes thematic cross-sections which enable students to understand not just the crucial events that shaped the period (such as the Crusades, the fall of Constantinople, the Black Death, the threat of Mongol invasions and popular rebellions), but also the mentalities of the people who experienced them. The thematic structure of tutorials allows comparison within each theme, covering not just Europe but also the Byzantine and Islamic worlds. Possible themes may include political structures, popular devotion, religious dissent, transmission of intellectual thought, violence and warfare, marriage, childhood, the persecution of minorities, assimilation and co-existence, and travel and exploration.

This course explores the role of seapower and empires in the development of modern warfare, strategy, and international relations. Students examine the role of sea power in imperialism and the relationship between East and West, the role of technological innovation in the ability of sea power to affect war and politics both at the global and regional levels, the role of maritime geography as a structural impediment and enabler in the projection of power, and the conceptual complexities involved in the terms empire and imperialism as tools for understanding the strategic challenges that face the world today.

This course examines the making of the modern world to 1900. It covers the following questions: How did the modern world happen? How did a few small countries in Europe (and later the United States) come to dominate so much of the world’s wealth and power by 1900? How did they displace the great empires of the Middle East, South Asia and China?

The 20th century completely reconfigured global politics. These reconfigurations also transformed Britain’s international standing. This course examines the often-overlapping shifts behind this transformation – imperial decline, economic crises, world wars, Cold War, European integration. Using a foreign policy lens, it examines how successful Britain was in navigating global challenges; how it adapted its strategies and alliances as a result; and how the foreign policymaking process altogether evolved, from being mainly the domain of ambassadors to increasingly being shaped by individual prime ministers. In answering these questions, the course has three main aims. First, to offer students an overview of the international history of modern Britain; second, to establish a firm basis for further studies in foreign policy and/or British politics; third, to provide the conceptual tools necessary for understanding current political discourses. 

This course investigates significant events that shaped American society and formed the United States from the colonial period to the end of the Vietnam War. The course covers the impact of the colonial legacy on the American self-government and development of a democratic society, the American Revolution and Republican ideology, the Industrial Revolution and Sectionalism, the Civil War and the end of slavery, the rise of Big Business and Corporatism, the World Wars and American Society, the United States and world revolutions, the decline of the American Empire.