AHIS 27A00 - History of the Modern World, XX-XXI Century

The objective of this second-year, 12-session course is for all Sciences Po students to develop a historical understanding of key issues and themes in modern and contemporary world history. Building on the first-year course on the political history of 19th-century Europe, this course aims to provide students with a broad knowledge of the 20th and 21st centuries while encouraging them to engage with multiple topics and historical questions.

World history is approached here in a broad and flexible manner, encompassing social, economic, diplomatic, and cultural factors. The course will cover a variety of topics, from the evolution of democracies and dictatorships to wars and mass violence, from empires and decolonization to inequalities and the welfare state, and finally, to processes of global integration and the resulting contemporary crises.

The course will begin with an introductory session that outlines the various approaches to studying modern world history, including the periodizations — both conventional and not — that historians employ, as well as key historiographical debates and schools of thought. The remaining 11 sessions will be organized into four main blocs:

Key Conflicts of the 20th and 21st Centuries: Exploring the transformation of the nature and practice of war, as well as its impact on the international system.

Capitalist Integration and Crises: Examining the major crises shaping the modern and contemporary evolution of capitalism and the dynamics of globalization and fragmentation it has driven.

The Rise of Non-State Actors: Analyzing their role in addressing new, transnational, and often de-territorialized challenges.

Contemporary Globalization: Investigating its many contestations, U.S. contradictory hegemony, and the key turning point represented by the 2008 global financial crisis.

This course seeks to equip students with the tools to critically engage with the complexities of modern and contemporary history in a global context.

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.