The course provides a non-Eurocentric overview of the historical backgrounds of the main polities and their international relations in today’s globalized world. It introduces important issues in world history including methodology and main trends, convergences and divergences. It will analyse the main themes / processes of global history: trade networks, cultural connections, diasporas and migrations, empires and informal powers in a global perspective from the 15th to the 20th century.
Students have to rely on the notes taken in class and the slides prepared by the teacher. The reading and other
material will be indicated at the beginning of the course and inserted on the E-Moodle platform of the course, which is accessible only to attending students.
Students NOT ATTENDING the course:
SEE 2019/2020
Obiettivi Formativi
This course is designed to familiarize students with concepts, methods, approaches and empirical research on World history.
By the end of the course students should therefore be able to demonstrate:
• A core historical grounding in the subject and a confident knowledge of the topics, but also a critical approach.
• A new understanding of the problems of global economy, environment, and culture by exploring themes related to past human mobility, to the formation of systems of communication and power relations within colonial empires, processes of globalization in the nineteenth-twentieth century.
• An understanding of the importance of public history today and of the existence and formation of different narratives about the past.
• The capacity to discuss analytically about topics in the field and to cultivate a capacity for critical thinking.
Prerequisiti
General knowledge of Early Modern and Modern history
Metodi Didattici
Lectures (also from Italian and foreign experts) and and classroom discussions, audio and visual sources, reading of primary sources, students' presentations.
During the course the teacher may hand out reaction papers on some of the activities carried on. The participation grade also includes homework assignments which may be given at the instructor’s discretion, either to prepare for discussion or to complement topics dealt with in class. Clearly, participation requires study of the assigned readings listed in the schedule.
Altre Informazioni
Students attending the course have to register for the class on the EMoodle platform (http://e-l.unifi.it/ ask professor for the password) and download the material that the teacher will be posting on it. Registration is allowed until November, 10th.
Modalità di verifica apprendimento
Only for ATTENDING students:
- prepare a group presentation on one of the readings assigned - moodle-. (20%)
- Evaluation of active participation in classroom discussion will be part of the final mark (20%).
- Oral examination about the general contents and readings (moodle) of the course (60%).
Attending students will have the option of a written exam in English in December, consisting in the answer to 4 short questions and 1 out of 3 essay questions.
In order to get top marks (27/30), students have to show not only descriptive knowledge but also critical capacity, adequate reference to the relevant literature. The exam lasts 2 hours. Only an English dictionary can be consulted (no books, no notes etc).
NON ATTENDING students: SEE 2019/2020
Programma del corso
The course is divided in two parts. The first part provides a general introduction to global history and its main themes / processes: trade networks, cultural connections, diasporas and migrations, empires and informal powers in a global perspective from the 15th to the 20th century.
The second part will focus on the public use of history through a series of case studies.
1. Methodology and introduction to World History
2. Periodization (I): Forging New Networks in the Early Modern World; Global connections: empires and exchanges.
3. Empires, Global Exchange and Slave Trades: International Markets and Global Exchange Networks; Systems of power and domination across the Americas, Europe and Africa: circulation of goods, people, ideas; Africa and forced labour across the Atlantic Ocean; Other slave trades from the Indian to the Pacific Ocean.
4. Periodization (II): Revolutions and divergences and the age of Western predominance; Globalization in World History.
5. Migration, Racial categories, Segregation and Discrimination: Mobility in the early modern world; 19th century migrations and trans-national ideas about race; A global revolution? Nation, race and western colonialism.
6. Periodization (III): The post-colony: new histories and methodological perspectives; Global System: Interdependence and Conflict in the Contemporary World
7. Global History and Narratives of the past (I): Introduction to Public History and case studies.
8. Global History and Narratives of the past (II): From UNESCO's 'History of Mankind' to Intangible Heritage, case studies.