CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

The course will study the history of the United States, looking at the political institutions and the economic, social and cultural understandings that have shaped the making of the American State, from the revolutionary birth of the Republic up today.

At the end of the course students will be expected to know the US constitution and the political system, to identify and interpret the key events of the national history, its economic and political continuities and fractures, and to know the main themes of historiographical debates on the American history.

No prerequisite is needed

The course will study the history of the United States, looking at the political institutions and the economic, social and cultural understandings that have shaped the making of the American State, from the revolutionary birth of the Republic up today. At the end of the course students will be expected to know the US constitution and the political system, to identify and interpret the key events of the national history, its economic, cultural and political continuities and fractures, to know the main political cultures that have characterized the American democracy and its party system, and to know the main themes of historiographical debates on the making of the American State and nation.
The course is divided in two parts: 1) from the Revolution to the First World War; 2) from the interwar period to nowadays.

Program for attending students
1) Stefano Luconi, La «nazione indispensabile». Storia degli Stati Uniti dalle origini a oggi, Le Monnier, 2016.


Program for non-attentding students:
1) Stefano Luconi, La «nazione indispensabile». Storia degli Stati Uniti dalle origini a oggi, Le Monnier, 2016.
2) And two among the following books:
Matteo Battistini, Una Rivoluzione per lo Stato. Thomas Paine e la Rivoluzione americana nel Mondo Atlantico, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2012
Tiziano Bonazzi, Abraham Lincoln. Un dramma americano, Il Mulino, 2016
Tiziano Bonazzi, La rivoluzione americana, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2018
Bruno Cartosio, I lunghi anni Sessanta: movimenti sociali e cultura politica negli Stati Uniti, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2012
Bruno Cartosio, La grande frattura: concentrazione della ricchezza e disuguaglianze negli Stati Uniti, Verona, Ombre corte, 2013
Angela Santese, La pace atomica. Ronald Reagan e il movimento antinucleare (1979-1987), Le Monnier, 2016
Nadia Venturini, La strada per Selma: la mobilitazione afroamericana e il Voting Rights Act del 1965, Milano, Angeli, 2015.
Elisabetta Vezzosi, Madri e Stato. Politiche sociali negli Stati Uniti del Novecento, Roma, Carocci, 2002
Robert Wiebe, La democrazia americana, a cura di Tiziano Bonazzi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009

The exam will be oral

Traditional lectures

oral