Contemporary History I - LM [Sede VR] (2019/2020)

Course code
Name of lecturer
Renato Camurri
Renato Camurri
Number of ECTS credits allocated
Other available courses
Academic sector
Language of instruction
Sem 2A, Sem 2B

Lesson timetable

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Learning outcomes



Europe and the United States in the History of the Twentieth Century

The course aims to provide an in-depth knowledge of the European history of the period 1900-1980 and of the history of political, diplomatic and cultural relations between Europe and the United States in those years. There are three crucial steps to understand the evolution of these relationships in the first half of the twentieth century: The Great War and the Thirties that registrer the rise of two American presidents destined to play a central role in the world political scene as Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt and the phase that opens after 1945 with the reconstruction of Europe and the beginning of the Cold War.

The course structure revolves around three thematic blocks.

From the Great War to totalitarianism

1. The Great War and United States.
3. Wilsonism.
4. Origins and characters of the totalitarianism.
5. Italian fascism: origins and transformations.
6. The Weimar Republic and the birth of Nazism.
7. The crisis of 1929.

The thirties

1. The New Deal: a global perspective.
2. The crisis of Europe in the interwar years.
3. Transatlantic fascism.
6. The experience of exile.
7. United States and World War II.

After 1945

2. The reconstruction of Europe.
3. The origins of the Cold War.
5. The Americanization of Europe.
6. The 70s-80s: protest movements and crisis of the liberal state.


1. A book chosen from:


2. Two books chosen from the following:

S. Cortesini, One day we must meet. Le sfide dell’arte e dell’architettura italiane in America (1933-1941), Johan & Levi Editore, 2018.



Didactit modes

The partecipants can prepare brief paper to expose in class.

Assessment methods and criteria

Assessment methods and criteria

1. Exam is based on a oral text.

Corona Virus Emergency

Following the decisions made by the University authorities for the Corona Virus emergency, I inform you that the exams of Contemporary History (I+P), Contemporary History (Education sciences) will take place through a online written test. The exam of Contemporary History (LM) will take place through a online oral exam.