GLOBAL HISTORY, THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

Course Structure

• Global History, the Modern Middle East and North Africa

  The course is based on lectures, but students’ participation in class debate is highly appreciated. In order to facilitate interaction, students will be regularly solicited to provide written and oral insights on specific questions. Primary sources, newspapers, maps, film excerpts, photos and videos will be used during the lessons.

Detailed Course Content

• Global History, the Modern Middle East and North Africa

  The course will deal with the modern history of the Middle East and North Africa from the French expedition to Egypt (1798) to the end of the twentieth century. Several facets of the late-nineteenth-century modernisation will be taken into account (military reforms, secularism, constitutionalism, etc.). Then European imperialism, the emergence of nationalisms and the Middle East state system created after WWI will be analysed. Special attention will be devoted to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Finally, the course will observe the development of Pan-Arabism and Socialism and the subsequent rise of political Islam.

Textbook Information

• Global History, the Modern Middle East and North Africa

  James L. Gelvin, The Modern Middle East. A History, Oxford University Press, New York-Oxford 2011 (3rd edition).