Contemporary history

Objectives

1.Conhecer os principais acontecimentos que marcaram a contemporaneidade.
2. Identificar as fontes e a bibliografia essenciais para o estudo da época contemporânea;
3. Capacidade de compreender e relacionar factos históricos;
4. Aprender a seleccionar informação, pensar e agir cientificamente através da formulação de hipóteses de trabalho e da apresentação de conclusões;
5. Adquirir os conhecimentos essenciais para a realização de trabalhos de investigação sobre as temáticas analisadas na unidade curricular;
6. Desenvolver capacidade de expor oralmente e de redigir recorrendo a um vocabulário assertivo e rigoroso;
7. Capacidade de analisar, compreender e sintetizar os conhecimentos adquiridos. 

Program

I - WORLD WAR I (1914-1918)
1. The trigger of the conflict: the illusions of a short war
2. From European conflict to World War
3. The characteristics and phases of war
4. The importance of public opinion
5. From the armistice to treaties of peace: a new European map
6. The Triumph of Democracy
II – FROM A WAR TO ANOTHER
1. The consequences of World War I: demography, economy, social issues
2. The difficulties in international relations
3. The rise of authoritarian regimes: fascism, Nazism, Salazarism
4. The Russian Revolution and the Soviet totalitarianism
5. The 1929 crisis and its consequences
III - WORLD WAR II
1. The origins and causes
2. The evolution of world war and the extent of the conflict
3. The peace treaties
IV - THE POST-WAR
1. Europe's recovery: the Marshall Plan
2. The United Nations
3. "Cold War"
4. The system of alliances: NATO and the Warsaw Pact
5. decolonization
7. The European Union Construction

Teaching Methodologies

Theoretical classes - focused on the exposure of the teacher, with the presentation of the main perspectives of approach to the curriculum.

Classes theoretical-practice interactive, focused on student participation, with guidance from the teacher, based on methods of analysis, interpretation and criticism of texts and other documents relevant to the issues under study. Promoting dialogue, emphasizing the "recovery" of knowledge gained, not only during the course of the study but, whenever possible, with the call for interdisciplinarity and the importance of "general culture" in the success of university education.

Bibliography

DOYLE, W., The French Revolution: a very short introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001.
HOBSBAWM, E. J., A Era dos Extremos, Lisboa, Presença, 1998.
OVERY, Richard, Os Ditadores. A Alemanha de Hitler e a Rússia de Estaline, Lisboa, Bertrand, 2004.
WESTAD, Arne Odd, The Global Cold War. Third World Interventions and the
Making of Our Times, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005.