CONTEMPORARY HISTORY
Academic Year 2025/2026 - Teacher: ERMANNO TAVIANIExpected Learning Outcomes
The course aims to provide an understanding of the history of Italy in the 20th century from a political, economic, and cultural perspective. It also aims to address the history of one of the most important parties of the so-called “First Republic,” the Italian Communist Party, during its seventy years of existence (1921-1991).
The expected learning outcomes, according to the guidelines set out in the Dublin Descriptors, are as follows:
- DD1: learning and understanding the vocabulary and terminology of the proposed disciplinary program, with particular reference to the historical and social aspects of the phenomena studied and their application in broader spatial and temporal contexts. The aim is also to provide an overview of the fundamentals of the historical method.
- DD2: understanding and mastery of the concepts underlying the topics studied in depth. The study of the historical trajectory of Italian society in the post-World War II period, viewed in its various aspects: economic, political, and cultural. Specific paths and cases will also be illustrated through the use of different types of documentary sources: traditional and new, specific to the “information society.”
- DD3 and DD4: the proposed course aims to provide students with specific skills enabling them to develop precise individual paths aimed at implementing and strengthening their independent judgment and structuring a complete path that allows them to convey the skills they have learned to the outside world.
- DD5: the primary objective of the proposed course and program is to enable the development of targeted learning skills that can represent an essential asset for the student, which can be used in future competitions even outside the university.
Course Structure
Required Prerequisites
No prerequisites required. However, a basic knowledge of Contemporary History and/or the reading the last volume of a high school manual is highly recommended.
Attendance of Lessons
Detailed Course Content
The Italian Communist Party's History from the Foundation to its dissolution. The characters of the PCI. The role of Gramsci and Togliatti. Clandestinity. Stalinism. From the policy of the "united front" to the "popular fronts"i. The Resistance. The New Party. The PCI in Republican Italy. 1956. Facing the centro-sinistra. Cultural policy. The analysis of Italian society. The debate after the death of Togliatti. The PCI and 1968. Berlinguer and the "compromesso storico". The crisis of the eighties. The fall of the Berlin wall and the dissolution of the PCI.
Textbook Information
2) A. Vittoria, Storia del PCI 1921-1991, Carocci, Roma 2006.
| Author | Title | Publisher | Year | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lepre A. | Storia della prima Repubblica. L'Italia dal 1943 al 2003 | Il Mulino | 2006 | 9788815114099 |
| Vittoria A. | Storia del Pci. 1921-1971 | Carocci | 2007 | 9788843038947 |
Course Planning
| Subjects | Text References | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Presentation of the course. The PCI from its foundation to the Komintern's VII Congress . | Vittoria, Storia del Pci, cap. 1 e 2. |
| 2 | Italy 1943-1945. | Lepre, Storia della prima repubblica, cap. 1Vittoria, Storia del Pci, cap. 3. |
| 3 | The foundation of the Italian Republic. | Lepre, cap. 2; Vittoria, cap. 4. |
| 4 | 1948 and the Centrism. | Lepre, cap. 3; Vittoria, cap. 4. |
| 5 | The "anni duri". 1956. | Lepre, cap. 4; Vittoria, cap. 5. |
| 6 | The economic take-off. | Lepre cap. 5; Vittoria, cap. 5. |
| 7 | The "centro-sinistra". | Lepre, cap. 6; Vittoria, cap. 6. |
| 8 | The 1968 movement and its consequences. The Prague Spring. | Lepre cap. 7; Vittoria, cap. 7. |
| 9 | The "strategy of tension" and the reforms. | Lepre cap. 7 e 8; Vittoria, cap. 7 e 8. . |
| 10 | Berlinguer, the "Hiistorical compromise and "democratic solidarity". The 1977 movement. | Lepre, cap. 8; Vittoria, cap. 8. |
| 11 | The Moro case. | Lepre, cap. 8; Vittoria, cap. 8. |
| 12 | The italian eighties. | Lepre, cap. 9; Vittoria, cap. 8. |
| 13 | 1989 in Italy. From the PCI to the PDS. | Lepre, cap. 10; Vittoria, cap. 9. |
| 14 | The end of the "prima Repubblica". Tangentopoli. | Lepre, cap.10. |
| 15 | The "seconda repubblica". | Lepre, cap. 10, appendice. |
| 16 | Gramsci's "Quaderni" and the Communist Culture | Vittoria and selected Gramsci pages from "Quadern" |
| 17 | The history of the PCI and the Republic in cinema. | Vittoria and documents assigned in the classroom. |
| 18 | Verification of the historical didactic path. Conclusions. | Vittoria e Lepre |
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
The exam includes an oral examination. The evaluation will be based on: ability of exposure and lexical correctness; elaboration of knowledge and in-depth analysis of contents.
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
The fall of fascism and the Resistance. The foundation of the Republic. A Republic of the parties? The role of the Christian Democrats. Centrism. The economic miracle. A New Italy? The center-left. 1968 and its consequences. The years of "general contestation". The "strategy of tension". Historical compromise and "national solidarity". The Moro case. Left-wing terrorism. The eighties. The end of the "Cold War and its consequences on the Italian political scene. Tangentopoli and the end of the "First Republic". The new political arrangements after 1994.
The characters of the PCI. The role of Antonio Gramsci and Togliatti. Clandestinity. Stalinism. From the policy of the "united front" to the "popular fronts"i. The Resistance. The New Party. The PCI in Republican Italy. 1956. Facing the centro-sinistra. Cultural policy. The death of Togliatti. The 1968. Berlinguer and the "compromesso storico". The crisis of the eighties. The fall of the Berlin wall and the dissolution of the PCI.