511704 - 19TH CENTURY CULTURES AND SOCIETIES

courses

ID:

511704

Duration (hours):

36

CFU:

SSD:

STORIA CONTEMPORANEA

Year:

2025

Date/time interval

Secondo Semestre (23/02/2026 - 22/05/2026)

Course Objectives

The course aims to clarify and deepen knowledge of the historical issues surrounding the origins of the contemporary world, from the end of the 18th century to the Great War. This “Long Nineteenth Century” is generally regarded by historians as a homogeneous period from a political, economic, cultural and social point of view. The course aims in particular to provide students with the historiographical tools necessary to understand the cultural processes that have redefined the horizon of expectation and the space of experience of men and women in the 19th century. While focusing on European and Italian events, the course will also consider the global dimension of cultural processes.

Course Prerequisites

All students can attend this course.

Teaching Methods

Lectures and seminars. The required attendance is 75% of the course's lessons. Otherwise students will follow the appropriate program for non-attending students.

Assessment Methods

The exam will be oral and it will assess the students' knowledge of the topics covered in the course.

Texts

The attending students are required to study on slides and lecture notes, and two (2) books chosen from the list below.
Those who are NOT going to attend the class are required to study the handbook below: A. M. BANTI, L'età contemporanea. Dalle rivoluzioni settecentesche all'imperialismo, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2009 And two (2) more books chosen from the following list.

- B. ANDERSON, Comunità immaginate. Origini e diffusione dei nazionalismi, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2018;
- S. CAVICCHIOLI, I cimeli della patria. Politica della memoria nel lungo Ottocento, Carocci, Roma, 2022;
- A. M. BANTI, La nazione del Risorgimento. Parentela, santità e onore alle origini dell’Italia unita, Einaudi, Torino, 2000;
- A. M. BANTI, L'onore della nazione. Identità sessuali e violenza nel nazionalismo europeo dal XVIII secolo alla Grande Guerra, Einaudi, Torino 2005;
- N. MERKER, La guerra di Dio. Religione e nazionalismo nella Grande Guerra, Carocci, Roma, 2015;
- G. L. MOSSE, La nazionalizzazione delle masse. Simbolismo politico e movimenti di massa in Germania, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1975;
- G. L. MOSSE, Sessualità e nazionalismo. Mentalità borghese e rispettabilità, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1984;
- I. VECA, Il mito di Pio IX. Storia di un papa liberale e nazionale, Viella, Roma, 2018.

After some introductory lectures on the major transformations (political, economic, cultural) that triggered the main socio-cultural processes of the Long Nineteenth Century, the course will focus on the genesis and characteristics of the idea of nation in the 19th century. The unifying theme of the course will therefore be national patriotism as an ideology that gradually came to hegemonise European and ultimately global cultures. The political, memorial and cultural dimensions of nineteenth-century national patriotism will be illustrated, with particular attention to Catholic patriotism.

Course Language

Italian

More information

Those who are not going to attend the class are highly recommended to contact the teacher before the oral examination, during office hours or by e-mail.