AHIS 22A00 - History of Contemporary Worlds, XX-XXI century

The objective of this second-year twelve-session course is that all Sciences Po undergraduate students acquire an historical understanding of some key issues and themes in modern and contemporary political history. Following the first-year course on the political history of 19th century Europe, this course aims at providing students with a general basis of knowledge of the XX and XXI century, while asking them to address multiple topics and historical questions. Political history is here understood broadly and flexibly, encompassing social, economic and cultural factors. This course will present the history of the contemporary world by means of a carefully selected choice of topics with a particular eye on the history of Asia and Europe. The opening session of the course will address the decline of traditional empires, which characterized world history in the course of the 19 th century and the early years of the 20 th century. The final session of the course will bring the material up to the present. The aim is to present a comparative and transnational analysis and discussion of the history of the past one hundred years.

Gerd-Rainer HORN,Armel CAMPAGNE,Jean D'ANDLAU,Natalia NUNEZ-BARGUENO,Darius DEVOS

Cours magistral et conférences

English

The organization backbone of the course consists of weekly two-hour lectures and a weekly two-hour tutorial meeting with extensive student participation. Each week, students also prepare for the lecture by reading the relevant chapters from the mandatory reading list in advance of the lecture. Please note that primary sources in the readings lists are underlined. The tutorials, which will normally take place after the lecture, will further address various aspects of the material covered in each week. Students will also develop individual presentations in accordance with the guidelines for such presentations explained by the individual group tutor.

Spring 2023-2024

Two thirds of the overall grade (66%) consists of grades obtained for work performed in the context of the discussion sections (conférences de méthode), where students will discuss the mandatory readings, examine primary sources, engage with the main historiographical issues and where students will be asked to make an oral presentation. This 66% is in turn a composite mark for three separate items: - The mid-term exam (galop d'essai) (33%) - An individual oral presentation focused on the analysis of one of the mandatory readings or a related primary document (33%) - A written analytical comment on an article from an historical journal on a subject of relevance to this course (not one of the mandatory readings) or on an historical document of relevance to the issues discussed in the course (again: not one of the mandatory readings) (33%). The length of this analytical comment is 1.250 words. The remaining third of the total grade (33%) for the course consists of the result of the Final Exam. Students will be asked to respond to one question. Along with the question, you will also receive a dossier consisting of five or six documents. These ‘documents' may be texts, maps, iconographic materials, tables, graphs, or similar items. The answer will be provided in the form of an essay, which will discuss (and engage with) all the documents of the dossier, in addition to other materials and knowledge gained in the course of your studies (lecture notes, ideas discussed in the conférences de méthode, any additional readings, etc.).

Abilities and methodological skills General knowledge of XX-XXI century political history, based on the course textbooks and reference handbooks Ability to read and discuss a syllabus consisting of primary (documents) and secondary sources (texts, articles and books written by historians) Ability to compile a bibliography on a specific research topic Knowledge of some of the main historiographical debates on the period and ability to discuss them Ability to contextualize, interpret and comment primary sources Ability to use historical knowledge to understand current events and issues