Course program
The course examines the theme of social conflict and political violence in Cold War Italy, with particular attention to the emergence, development, and trajectories of the terrorist movements that shaped the country’s history during the 1970s and 1980s.
The following topics will be explored in greater depth:
The long-term historical dynamics in which political violence is situated;
The importance of the international context;
The main episodes of violence and terrorism that marked Italy in the 1970s and 1980s;
The national and international scholarly and historiographical debates surrounding political violence in Italy during the second half of the twentieth century.
Prerequisites
The course requires knowledge of 20th century history
Books
Mandatory Readings:
Guido Formigoni, Storia d’Italia nella guerra fredda, 1943-1978, il Mulino, Bologna 2016.
Francesco Benigno, Terrore e terrorismo. Saggio storico sulla violenza politica, Einaudi, Torino 2018.
Further Readings (choose one):
Anna Bravo, A colpi di cuore. Storie del Sessantotto, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2008.
Riccardo Brizzi, Giovanni Mario Ceci, Michele Marchi, Guido Panvini, Ermanno Taviani (a cura di), L’Italia del terrorismo: partiti, istituzioni e società, Carocci, Roma 2021.
Giovanni Mario Ceci, Il terrorismo italiano. Storia di un dibattito, Carocci, Roma 2013.
Luca Falciola, Il movimento del 1977 in Italia, Carocci, Roma 2015.
Monica Galfré, La guerra è finita. L’Italia e l’uscita dal terrorismo 1980-1987, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2014.
Marc Lazar, Marie-Anne Matard-Bonucci (a cura di), Il libro degli anni di piombo, Rizzoli, Milano 2010.
Valentine Lomellini, Il «lodo Moro». Terrorismo e ragion di Stato, 1969-1986, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2022.
Guido Panvini, Ordine nero, guerriglia rossa. La violenza politica nell’Italia degli anni Sessanta e Settanta (1966-1975), Einaudi, Torino 2009.
Guido Panvini, Cattolici e violenza politica. L’altro album di famiglia del terrorismo italiano, Marsilio, Venezia 2014.
Angelo Ventura, Per una storia del terrorismo italiano, Donzelli, Roma 2010.
Frequency
Attendance is optional
Exam mode
Assessment method
The exam will take place in two distinct moments: a written test and an oral interview.
1) the written part, the same for both attending and non-attending students, consists in the preparation of an essay ranging from a minimum of 20,000 characters (10 pages, notes and spaces included) to a maximum of 30,000 characters (15 folders, notes and spaces included). The subject of the paper must be agreed in advance with the teacher. The student can refer to one or more of the further readings. The essay, with name and surname, course of study, student number and e-mail address indicated at the top, must be submitted before the oral interview. The text can be delivered in paper form or as a word document attached to an e-mail.
2) The oral interview focuses on the mandatory readings, on one of the further reading and on the topics covered in the course. For attending students, active participation in the course will be taken into account. Non-attending students must prepare two of the volumes included in further reading list.
The average between the evaluation of the written test and the oral interview contributes to the formulation of the final grade.
Lesson mode
Each lesson includes a frontal presentation and a part dedicated to the discussion of texts, audiovisual materials and archival documents made available by the teacher. In particular, students will be encouraged to prepare novels and literary texts related to the topics of the lessons, through group or individual presentations. At the end of the course, students will acquire the skills to interpret the main issues concerning the theme of political violence in Italy during the cold war, through the analysis of archival documents and other sources; the comparison with historiography and the interdisciplinary approach will also help him to develop the synthesis and critical re-elaboration of the readings; the active participation in collective discussions, finally, will strengthen his capacity for argumentation and exposition.
