Face-to-face , second term, 30 hours of theory.

Second term
Thursday from 15:15 to 17:15 at 43 Botanique 1

English

Upon completion of the class, students should have acquired:
- a basic knowledge of factual World History (1914-…);
- a basic knowledge of the geography and chronology of World History (1914-…), with a specific focus on Western Europe;
- an intermediate knowledge of some aspects develop through case studies;
- a basic approach to historical method, especially for the analysis of ongoing crises and their historical legacy, e.g. the use of media resources;
- a first approach to historical analysis and synthesis to overcome the crude analysis of our world today, as it appears in the media or the web.

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To understand the historical evolution of the short Twentieth Century, many analyses are possible and legitimate. In this introduction class, it seems relevant to start with a paradigmatic approach, the geopolitical one. Therefore, the main shifts of the Cold War in Europe and outside Europe can be schematically and easily presented, analysed and understood. With this approach, the specificity of the European integration process and its own history since 1950 fits in this larger perspective. From economical and regional integration to a potential answer to the New World Order, the European project could be seen as an alternative to the bipolar logic.

Ex cathedra presentations.

Personal notes taken during the lecture and individual reading of the reference book. To complete these, a detailed outline (which is not an exhaustive syllabus) will be available a month after the beginning of the lecture.

A written examination divided into three parts:
1st part: multiple choice questions on facts, dates, events, acronyms, ...
2nd part: a commentary on a document, analyzed in course;
3rd part: a transversal question on a topic developed during the lecture.

A selection of chapters from the following book must be read for the class: Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes. The short Twentieth Century (1914-1991). London, Abacus, 2007 (1994), 627 p.
Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (eds). The Cambridge History of the Cold War. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010, 3 vol.