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GLOBAL HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY AGE

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

 

The course aims at leading the student to acquire an intimate understanding of the specific approach to the making of the global society – focused on cross-cultural and transregional interactions – which is being practised by the schools of international historiography of the contemporary age grouped under the paradigm of the New World History, through the examination of a particularly relevant study case. At the end of the course the student will possess:

  1. an in-depth knowledge of a particularly relevant period in the history of globalization;

  2. a preliminary notion of the heuristic procedures, treatment of sources, use of analytical categories, organization of the

    research and modalities of exposition, circulation and evaluation of its results within the scientific community, which characterize the pursuing of original knowledge in the disciplinary field of the Global History of the Contemporary Age.

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Knowledge and understanding

At the end of the course the student will possess an in-depth knowledge of the first phase, located between the XVIII and the XIX centuries, of the process of transition to global modernity and will be able in the same time to understand from within the methods and procedures which connote the achievement of original results in the specialized research field of the Global History of the Contemporary Age.

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Applying knowledge and understanding

The student will be able to interpret and employ the primary sources and the secondary literature according to the specific problem- orientation of the Global History of the Contemporary Age.

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Further expected learning outcomes:

  • Making judgements: The student will develop the attitude to employ the knowledge and the methods learned through the Course in order both to elaborate an autonomous reconstructions of the topics listed in the programme (below) and to express a critical evaluation of the multiple interpretations proposed or discussed by the teacher.

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  • Communication skills: The student will acquire the ability to expound complex transformative processes and single constellations of problems relevant to the Global History of the Contemporary Age in the technical language and according with the kind of logical and empirical argumentation which connote this discipline. He will enrich his communicative repertoire by becoming acquainted with the essential terminology peculiar to the global historians.

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  • Learning skills: The student will have laid the foundations both to independently expand his knowledge and skills in the field of Global History of the Contemporary Age according to different study paths and employment opportunities, particularly in the historical sciences, and to continue in the subsequent stages of the formative and professionalizing process of the global historian.

CONTENTS

The Crisis of the Eurasian Equilibrium and the Transition to Global Modernity:

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  1. A common past: themes and methodological presuppositions of the New World History;

  2. The persistence of the Eurasian equilibrium in the Early Modern Age;

  3. Old regimes and “archaic globalization”;

  4. Passages from the old regimes to modernity;

  5. The Eurasian revolution, I: the geopolitical dimension;

  6. The Eurasian revolution, II: the economic dimension;

  7. The Eurasian revolution, III: the cultural dimension;

  8. A world crisis? The age of revolutions in a global perspective;

  9. Periods of the history of globalization.

TEXTBOOKS

Recommended textbooks:

A) T. Tagliaferri, The New Global Past: Historiographical Background, Methodological Issues, General Outlines, FedOA - Federico II University Press (forthcoming) 

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B) One at choice among the following texts: 

1) C. A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World. Global Connections and Comparisons, Oxford, Blackwell, 2003, pp. 27-120 

2) J. Darwin, After Tamerlane. The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000, London, Allen Lane, 2007, pp. 1-217. 

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

Learning results to be verified

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The student’s preparation will be assessed through an oral examination. The student will be required to answer, both synthetically and articulately, three questions pertaining to the programme of the course (above). The student will have to demonstrate: 

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1) a basic knowledge of the essential outlines of the transition to global modernity and the concepts and methods employed by global historians in its study; 

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2) the capacity of using this knowledge in order to interpret in historic terms the general charecteristics of the contemporary global society; 

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3) the capacity of reconstructing complex historical processes and giving autonomous evaluations of the interpretations which have been advanced by the scholars about them; 

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4) the capacity of expounding the subject-matter of the Course according to the argumentative logic of the global historiography and the appropriate scientific terminology. 

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In order to pass the exam, obtaining a score not less than 18/30, the student must demonstrate a preparation at least sufficient with reference to parameter 1); to achieve the maximum evaluation of 30/30 cum laude the student must have sustained an excellent test in relation to all the four parameters listed above. 

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Assessment method

Oral examination

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