Class Introduction to Contemporary History

Mastery of the principal landmarks, movements, characters and ruptures in the Contemporary World, making  them funtional in sociological analises.

Part 1: The construction of modernity

- The Enlightenment and the new conception of Man

- The end of the Ancien Régime

- The Charter of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

- The rise of the bourgeoisie and its economic, social and political achievements

- Liberalism, religion and culture

Part 2: Liberal society

- The industrial revolution

- The proletariat and social problems

- Colonialism and European imperialism; the partition of Africa and the domination of Asia

Part 3: The great contemporary revolutions

- Nationalism

- The unification of Germany and Italy

- European fascisms

- The great wars

- Decolonisation

- The Cold War

- The end of history and the return of the Cold War

The working sessions will be theoretical-practical. In the dynamics of the sessions, students will actively participate by reading some previously defined and distributed texts (Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen); Declaration of Independence of the USA; Communist Manifesto; Encyclical Rerum Novarum; Universal Declaration of the Rights of Humanity). The aim of these readings, commented in class, is to use the contexts of each document as a laboratory tool for understanding the changes, scope and implications of each one. In addition to a written test, the assessment will involve participation in the debates centred on these texts, as well as the preparation of an indicidual essay based on one of the texts mentioned.

ARMITAGE, David; Subrahmanyam, Sanjay (2010). The Age of Revolutions in Global Context c. 1760-1840. Nova York: Palgrave Macmillan.

HEFFER, Jean; SERMAN, William (1999). O Século XIX, 1815-1914. Lisboa: Publicações D. Quixote.

HOBSBAWM, Eric (1985). A Era das Revoluções (1789-1848). Lisboa: Presença.

PORTER, Andrew (2011). O Imperialismo Europeu 1860-1914. Lisboa: Ec. 70.