GLOBAL HISTORY

Lectures and workshops

Knowledge of the main events of contemporary history between the 19th and 21st centuries

Recommended

The course will provide students with the tools and the coordinates to reconstruct the historical roots of contemporary reality, through a comparative perspective and thanks
to Global history approach. Because of the integrated look at the processes of transformation on an international and transnational scale, this discipline is able to offer a multifaceted and complex portrait of the world in transition.
The course will be organized into three parts:
1. The first part will have an introductory and methodological nature. Students will be guided to discover methods, contents and approach of the Global history, as well as its
development and main areas of application. What does Global history represent today? What is the difference between this discipline and the other historiographical approaches? What can the discipline offer scholars, and especially students of global politics and international relations? Where and how is this discipline practiced, and with what results? These are the questions that
the course will answer, through the analysis of some salient aspects of the discipline. In particular, the lessons will focus on the following topics:
- World history, Global history and the history of globalization;
- The lexicon of Global history;
- Space in Global history;
- Time in Global history;
- Global history: approaches, theories and paradigms;
- Development of the discipline since the 1990s;
- Disputes and critical issues;
- Fields and themes of Global history:

2. The second part of the course will analyze the complex forces and the processes that drove global change between the 19th and 21th centuries. Students will analyze the
construction of nation states and empires in comparative perspective, as well as the migratory phenomena, the history of social and political movements, the relationships between human beings and nature and gender relations. Why are some Countries rich and others poor? What is meant by ‘Great divergence’? What factors allowed Europe first – and then North America – to make the great leap towards industrialization and social development? For what reasons do these decades see the emergence of Countries (such as India, China, BRICS) that are reshaping the world geography of wealth? Does the map of economic development coincide with that of political, social and cultural development? What trajectories has the affirmation of human rights followed? What obstacles have they encountered? To what extent have the contaminations between different geographical areas (migrations, network) influenced the scientific and cultural climate? The course will answer these questions by adopting a global reading perspective. The lessons will focus on the following themes:

- The emergence of the West and the extension of the industrialization process;
- Imperial sistem and nation-states;
- The change in international hegemony between the 19th and 21th centuries;
- Late development: the case of Russia and Japan;
- Expansion, Crisis and Renewal: the British Empire in the perspective of Global history;
- The affirmation of the “Asian tigers” and the emergence of China;
- Networks and Migrations;
- Citizenship, Rights, Gender;
- Nature, Environment, Resources;
- Sciences, Religion, Arts.
With reference to this part of the course, students will use course lecture notes provided by the professor, with a collection of essays and chapters taken from the most important contributions relating to Global history.

3. The third part of the course includes the more active participation of students. Thanks to the theoretical and methodological tools previously acquired, students will be guided
in the preparation of a research (individually, or in working groups) concerning one of the topics covered during the course. The presentation of the research will be an integral part of the final evaluation, and and it will be accompanied by an oral exam on the other parts of the program

1. Sebastian Conrad, What is Global History?, Princeton University Press
2. Course notes by teacher available on Studium

Intermediate evaluation during the lectures: oral presentations on topics of the course

Finale exam: oral interview and presentation of a paper 

Fields of application of Global History

Imperialism and Colonialism

The White Man's burden and the Eurocentric perspective

World conflicts and global geopolitics

The Rise of Totalitarianisms: A Comparison

The Cold War on a global scale

Years of crisis: 1970-1990

The rise of the Asian tigers 

Ukraine: a global conflict