This course focuses on the history of nineteenth-century Italy placed within the broader context of European events. It is divided into two parts. The first addresses the main events and issues that affected Italy from the period of the French Revolution to its unification. The second part instead starts from the decades following the unification of Italy and continues up to World War I. Each part consists of seven modules, one per week, for a total of 42 hours.
During the course an approach based on cultural history will be adopted. Attention will be paid not only to the political and economic events that developed in Italy during the nineteenth century, but also to themes more related to the society and culture of the time, without privileging any of these aspects. The aim is to foster a broad understanding of the complexity of the historical events that characterised nineteenth-century Italy: a particularly effective perspective for students who are likely approaching modern history for the first time at university. During the lessons, extensive use will be made of written and visual sources, in order to engage students’ interest, prompt them to dialogue and develop some initial rudiments of analysis.

For general notions, lectures will be based on two main manuals:
• A.M. Banti, L’età contemporanea. Dalle rivoluzioni settecentesche all’imperialismo, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2009
• S. Lupo, A. Ventrone, L’età contemporanea, le Monnier, Firenze, 2018