Europe in the global world. Culture, societies, religions
The course intends to introduce students to European history in the light of the transformations brought about by globalisation. Students will be able to know how the roots of the continent’s history are deeply connected with the cultural and religious issues of the peoples who have crossed it, shaping its multiform identity and understand how the re-emergence of nationalisms and ethnic/cultural identitarian particularisms represent a challenge to the bases of the construction of an united Europe.
The course aims to guide students to analyse these phenomena in a historical dimension in order to frame their meaning and genesis.
Among the themes dealt with: history of antisemitism and antigypsyism; European Islam and immigration Islam; the multicultural society; nationalisms.
1) Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, Penguin Press (Students who are attending the lessons will be indicated during the course which parts of the book they should study)
2) Peter N. Stearns, Globalization in World History (Themes in World History), Routledge, chapt. 8-11
3) Steven Beller, Antisemitism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press
One of the following:
1) Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, Cornell University Press
2) D. Crowe, A History of The Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia 2nd Edition, Palgrave Macmillan
Recommended individual readings:
1. Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Penguin
2. Telford Taylor, The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials: A Personal Memoir, Skyhorse
