HISTORY OF REVOLUTION
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Bibliography
- Delivery method
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
None.
The final examination comprises two parts:
1) a two-hour written examination (to be taken without the help of readings or notes), aimed at assessing the knowledge of the readings suggested for the “General part” of the course. The test is structured as follows:
• 20 multiple-choice questions, worth 1 point each;
• Two open questions, worth maximum 5 points each.
To be admitted to the second part of the examination, a pass mark is required (at least 18/30) in the first part.
2) An oral examination (two questions) concerning the readings suggested for the “Monographic part” of the course and the other materials uploaded on the e-learning platform by the lecturer.
The mark of the oral examination (expressed on a scale of 30) will take into account the accuracy of the answers (worth 60% of the mark), as well as students’ analytical and presentation skills (worth 40% of the mark).
The final mark is the average of the two marks awarded in the written and oral examinations, both of which must be taken in the same exam session. The pass mark is 18/30.
The understanding of Contemporary History implies the knowledge of the historical processes in a long-durée perspective and particularly those triggered between the 18th and 19th centuries, which led to the collapse of the ancient regime.
By focusing on the topic of emancipation, the course explores the events, forces, ideas, and passions that ended up transforming the history of the world in terms of political and civil rights.
Among the learning objectives we find:
• The knowledge of the dynamics that characterized the processes and events explored during the course.
• The knowledge of the different interpretations of such dynamics.
• The ability to interpret, discuss and present the acquired information under the lens of the historical processes.
• The ability to discuss the sources and their use.
• The capacity to understand the premises and the results of the historiographical debate.
In 2009 Barack Obama became the first Afro-American president of the United States. His election was a turning point in the history of the country and had repercussions well. The origins of this “revolution” date back to the protests of the political and social movements that fought against racial segregation from the middle of the twentieth century in search for freedom and equal civil rights. Such claims, however, can only be fully understood by looking back to the nineteenth century.
That past, in which classifications and segregations of the human beings in terms of race and gender was the norm, seems to have reappeared in America and beyond its confines. With the aim to explore the dynamics underneath the human exploitation in the present, the course deals with the fight for the liberation from conditions of political, social, and cultural oppression in the long run.
The course is structured in two parts:
1) GENERAL PART (approximately 30 hours)
- The trade of human beings yesterday and today
- The abolitionist movements in the Atlantic world yesterday and today
- The stages of “legal” emancipation in the Atlantic world: the English colonies (1833), the French colonies (1848), the United States (1865), and Brazil (1888)
- New slaveries and the reasons for their reappearance in the global world
- Discriminations yesterday and today
2) MONOGRAPHIC PART (approximately 34 hours)
As for this part, the lessons focus on the following topics of the United States’ history:
- Boundless discrimination
- The fight for the emancipation between the North and the South, the East and the West
- Civil and political commitments: The different sides of “Movement”
- The system vis-a-vis the protest: State, FBI, CIA
- Comparing leaders and movements: from Martin Luther King and Malcolm X to Harvey Milk.
GENERAL PART
- G. TURI, Schiavi in un mondo libero. Storia dell’emancipazione dall’età moderna a oggi, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2012
MONOGRAPHIC PART
1) B. CARTOSIO, I lunghi anni Sessanta. Movimenti sociali e cultura politica negli Stati Uniti, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2012
2) One of the following biographies or autobiographies:
- MARTIN LUTHER KING, “I have a dream”: l’autobiografia del profeta dell’uguaglianza, Mondadori
- ARTNULF ZITELMANN, Non mi piegherete. Vita di Martin Luther King, Feltrinelli
- MALCOM X, ALEX HALEY, Autobiografia di Malcolm X, Bur
- MANNING MARABLE, Malcolm X. Tutte le verità oltre la leggenda, Donzelli
- RANDY SHILTS, The Major of Castro Street. The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, Atlantic Books, 2009
The learning objectives will be achieved through 64 lecture hours.
Students are expected to participate
in the discussions and analysis of additional materials (documents and texts) provided by the lecturer,
which will allow them to familiarize with the aims and methods of the historical research.
Office hour and location: Fridays from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Dipartimento di Scienze Teoriche e Applicate (Padiglione Rossi, Via Rossi). Students are required to previously schedule a meeting by sending an e-mail to the lecturer (katia.visconti@uninsubria.it).