Contemporary History (20th Century)
Code
711051018
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
História
Credits
6
Teacher in charge
José Neves
Weekly hours
4
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
a) Be able to acquire an overview of the short twentieth century having as chronological landmarks the Great War and the
Russian Revolution, on the one hand, and the end of the Cold War in 1991, on the other
b) Be able to understand the dialectic relationship between the factors of change and permanence which shaped some of
the key junctures of the 20th century, namely the inter-war period (1919-1939) and the Cold War era (1945-91)
c) Locate, both in chronological and spatial terms, some of the most emblematic crisis and transformations of the 20th
century
d) Be familiar with some of the major historical perspectives related with the various topics of the course
e) Be able to write critical essays and deliver oral presentations on any of the topics of the course
f) Become familiar with the Contemporary era and be able to proceed to a higher level of academic studies
Prerequisites
None
Subject matter
a)The Great War as the first total war.The Peace Conference and the Versailles settlement
b)The Russian Revolution and the triumph of the Bolsheviks.The Civil War. Stalins revolution.The global impact of October
c)Europe between the wars: the crisis of parliamentary democracy and liberal capitalism. European fascism:a typology.
Nazi Germany: interpretative models. The breakdown of the Versailles settlement. World War II
d)The birth of the bipolar world: the eclipse of Europes pre-eminence and the rise of the superpowers. The post-war order.
The early stages of the European integration process. The rebirth of parliamentary democracy and the new social contract.
Real existing socialism in E. Europe
e)The Cold War: origins, features and key phases
f) Europe from the Golden Age to the crisis decades. The end of the European colonial empires and the post colonial
conflicts. The social-democratic consensus under stress. The 1989 revolutions and the new post-Cold War landscape
Bibliography
HOBSBAWM, E. J., A Era dos Extremos, Lisboa, Presença, 1998
HOLLAND, Robert, European Decolonization 1918-1981, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1985
OVERY, Richard, Os Ditadores. A Alemanha de Hitler e a Rússia de Estaline, Lisboa, Bertrand, 2004
REYNOLDS, David, One World Divisible. A Global History since 1945, London, Penguin, 2000
WESTAD, Arne Odd, The Global Cold War. Third World Interventions and the
Making of Our Times, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005
Teaching method
A combination of lectures by the teacher and scheduled interventions by the students, followed by discussion among all the participants in the class. Occasional screening of documentaries or films. Tutorial meetings with students to help them with the drafting of their essays
Evaluation method
Exam (40%) and written essay (40%). Participation in some of the classes is mandatory (20%)