History of the Crisis of the XXth century

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

The class is theoretical-practical in nature: including presentations, class discussions and tasks assigned by the teacher; presentations and discussion of tasks by students.

Written exam – and possibly oral presentation – critical review (mandatory tasks); class participation, tasks including bibliographical and archival research; organization of debates and school trips (optional).

Learning Outcomes

The course aims to deepen the historical knowledge of the twentieth century, through the identification of the most recognizable moments of crisis punctuating the period. By organizing the century through the concept of crisis, students will also be invited to reflect on the notion of historical event and the forms of periodization that structure the narratives of the century and that to a large extent still constitute our present’s political ideologies and social imaginaries.

Throughout the course, students will aquire a critical sense of the twentieth-century, including methodological tools to think the interaction of political, social, economical and cultural phenomena; the making of chronologies that organize historical thinking; and the reciprocal relations European history establishes with the rest of the world. This critical knowledge can also be deployed in the study of the present, in particular through the forms our time has also been experienced as a moment of crisis.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Interdisciplinary introduction to the concept of crisis

2. The First World War and the Russian Revolution

3. The “Crisis of 1929” and the “Great Depression”

4. The Second World War and its consequences

5. The collapse of European Empires

6. The 1960s as crisis

7. From the “oil crisis” to the fall of the “socialist bloc”

8. The crises of the “end of history

9. The twenty-first century as crisis.

Head Lecturer(s)

Rui Luís Vide da Cunha Martins

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Exam: 100.0%

Bibliography

Badiou, A. (2005). Le Siècle. Seuil.

Buck-Morss, S. (2000). Dreamworld and catastrophe: the passing of mass utopia in east and west. MIT Press.

Hobsbawm, E. (1996). A era dos extremos. História breve do século XX (1914-1991). Editorial Presença.

Judt, T. (2007). Pós-guerra. História da Europa desde 1945. Edições 70.

Kershaw, I. (2016). To Hell and Back. Europe 1914-1949. Penguin.

Kershaw, I. (2018). Roller-Coaster. Europe 1950-2017. Penguin.

Mazower, M. (1999). Dark Continent. Europe’s Twentieth Century. Penguin.

Reynolds, D. (2013). The Long Shadow. The Great War and the Twentieth-Century. Simon and Schuster.

Seldon, A. (ed.) (1998). Contemporary history. Practice and method. Basil Blackwell.

Traverso, E. (2016). Fire and Blood. The European Civil War. 1914-1945. Verso.