Contemporary Social and Political History (20086)

Degree/study: Degree in Humanities
Year:3rd-4th.
Term: 3rd
Number of ECTS credits: 5 credits
Hours of studi dedication:  125 hours
Teaching language or languages: catalan
Teaching Staff: Santiago Izquierdo

1. Presentation of the subject

During the last third of the 18th century, a series of simultaneous changes takes place in the West and causes a radical change of its political (American and French revolutions) and economical (industrial revolution) basis. Those are the beginnings of political liberalism and of capitalism, which will gradually be consolidated in the Western countries throughout the 19th century, while at the same time give way to the greatest European expansion in History.
    Very often, the chronological limits do not fit within the frames of a historical scenario. It is said that the 20th century is a short one, lasting from 1914 until 1990, with the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the contrary, the 19th century is thought of as a long century, for it is supposed to have lasted from the French Revolution (1789-1799) until the First World War (1914-1918); from the political change implied in the collapse of the Old Regime to a bloody, violent war where all the characteristics and the dramatic contradictions of contemporary society are reflected.
    The 19th century is the century of the full consolidation of the capitalist economy and the lead to the extension of industrialisation. There are changes in the agrarian structure, a consolidation of the industrial transformations -from the automation of spinning or of weaving, to the most advanced iron and steel industry or the chemical industry-, a transportation revolution, a full internationalisation of the commercial exchanges, etc.
    Furthermore, all of these changes have implied some amazing social changes: a loss of importance of the nobility, a definite ascent of the bourgeoisie as the ruling class and the development of the proletariat as the most dynamic agent in reaction to the new socioeconomic regime.
    The political changes in the 19th century are also significant. The French Revolution has been considered the emblem of the struggle against a decaying political regime. Nevertheless, the European Restoration, after the Napoleonic defeats, tried to go back to the pre-revolutionary situation. However, it was obvious that everything had changed, and, with time and because of the changes society was undergoing, the liberal revolutions put to test a series of archaic structures that were hard to maintain. From the moment of the 1848 revolutions, and once it was obvious that the popular riot could spread the reach of the changes, the ruling classes started to consolidate the nation-states in a way which was more conservative and more favourable to their positions. It was the moment of the Italian and German unifications, of the splendour of Victorian England, of the consolidation of the French State, and of the emergency of the United States as the future greatest power in the world.
    The economical changes and the full consolidation of the nation-states lead to Imperialism and Colonialism. The world started to be an object to be divided between the most powerful powers that, for economical, strategic political, cultural and racial reasons thought it their right to subdue a good deal of Human Kind.
    But such aggressiveness turned against those who practised it, and an attack occurred in Sarajevo in 1914 gave way to an absurd escalation of violence, which lead to the First World War. And, amid the war, in such an unattainable country as Russia, the tsar's monarchy fell and the first socialist revolution took place. The real 20th century was starting.
    This century is marked by three transcendental events: two world wars of previously unseen intensity and consequences; a scientific and technological step forward of unprecedented dimensions; and some very deep, fast social changes, which include the development of the service sector, a world-scale loss of importance of the farming class as the largest social class, as well as an extension of the benefits of the welfare state to very broad strata of society, at least in the West.
    This Teaching Planning seeks to design and put to practice the adaptation of the course Political and Social Contemporary History to the guidelines of the Bologna Process. That implies a new teaching paradigm, where the dynamic participation of both professor and students is encouraged and the continued evaluation and the students' self-learning (tutored by the professor) and, as a desirable consequence, the joint learning of professor and students are intended.
    Political and Social Contemporary History is a course seeking to train students of the Humanities (as well as those from other study fields who choose to take it as a free-choice course) in the knowledge and analysis of the main social and political episodes of the contemporary age (19th century). The study of the diverse issues in the program of this course should allow students to assimilate the great economical, social, political and cultural changes undergone in the contemporary world, focusing especially on the Western European world, without missing the opportunity to make an approach to the main extra-European realities.
    Our goal is to favour an analytical view of the contemporary world by the students. Such an approach is taken in an active way, such that students must not summarise and repeat a historiographic discourse, but that they are able to relate a variety of aspects and to work with first-hand materials, such as texts from the studied period.
    The course is based on the development of general skills (tending to favour the optimisation of the students' skills and qualities) and of specific skills (knowledge of the contemporary period), through master classes (where basic knowledge is introduced), seminars about concrete issues in the curriculum (where the students' work is essential) and tutorials.

General goals of the course:
1.    Understanding the relevance of the liberal revolutions in the configuration of the contemporary world.
2.    Recognising the 19th-century revolutions related to industrialisation: the emergence of the labour movement and the role played by each social class in the historical dynamics of the period.
3.    Analysing the role of liberalism and nationalism as a basis for most political movements and for the formation and consolidation of the different nation-states.
4.    Deducing the series of causes that lead to the First World War, during which the Russian Revolution of 1917 took place.

2. Competences to be attained

General competences

Specific competences

Instrumental skills 1.1.    Written and spoken communication skills appropriate for the proper presentation of the required papers 1.    Correction, clarity and accuracy in the written or spoken expositions. 2.    Synthesis skills: being able to extract and communicate the main ideas in a text. 3.    Defending the arguments assumed in front of the professor and the class mates. 4.    Skills in showing an analytical mind towards the interpretations made by the professor, by the written texts and by the rest of the class mates. 5.    Self-initiative skills: being able to interact in the master classes and in the seminars. 1.2.    Research skills 6.    Skills in facing secondary and primary documentation. 7.    Skills in selecting information and, subsequently, arranging it. 8.    Skills in offering clear, well-arranged results. 1.3.    Analytical skills 9.    Skills in internalizing and disintegrating the constitutive elements of a text. 10.    Skills in organising the diverse elements of a previously determined text into a hierarchy. 1.4.    Self-initiative and skills in complementing information with basic texts 11.    Encouraging the bibliographical research 12.    Computer skills: Internet research, etc. 13.    Graphic skills: reading and using graphics and similar situations. Interpersonal skills 2.1. Good group working skills 2.2. Skills in informing about the development of papers 2.3. Receptivity to diversity Systemic skills 3.1. Learning skills 3.2. Skills in integrating knowledge and methods of a variety of disciplines 3.3. Autonomous working skills 3.4. Skills for the resolution of historical questions related to the political, economical, social or cultural history 3.5. Skills in applying common sense to the newly acquired knowledge 3.6. Skills in putting theoretical knowledge into practice

1.1.    Identifying the main periods in the political and social contemporary history (19th century) 1.2.    Applying different reasoning and looking for multi-causal explanations to understand the historical events and to evaluate their consequences 1.3.    Recognising the main social processes and cultural events in the political and social contemporary history 1.4.    Acquisition of the basic concepts, skills and reasoning referred to the area and period analysed 1.5.    Skills for a thoroughly study of the language and reasoning of the different political and social leaders of this period 1.6.    Skills in distinguishing between the historical events at a world level from those of a regional or local level 1.7.    Skills in contextualising journal articles in their appropriate political and sociological context

3. Contents

Unit 1. The crisis of Old Regime and the American and French revolutions
Unit 2. Industrialisation and the beginnings of the labour movement
Unit 3. Restoration and the bourgeois revolutions (1815-1848)
Unit 4. The organisation of contemporary society
Unit 5. First and Second International
Unit 6. Nationalism and the consolidation of the bourgeois States

 

*The full version with the sections 4. Assessment, 5. Bibliography and teaching resources, 6. Methodology, and 7. Planning of activities is available in the original version.

4. Assessment

5. Bibliography and teaching resources

5.1. Basic bibliography

5.2. Complementary bibliography

5.3. Teaching resources

6. Metodology

7. Planning of activities