The course aims to provide an introduction to “global history”. - From the beginning, the birth of the discipline will be analyzed, the methodological and terminological debates surrounding the definition of global (e.g. the differentiation between global history, world history) and the development of the main lines of research from the 1980s to the present. - The course then delves into some of the main historiographical issues on which the global history perspective has stimulated interpretative innovations and heated debates: from industrialization to colonialism and decolonization; from the comparative history of totalitarianism and violence to the crisis of the “Western paradigm” and the global export of democracy. - The relationship between global history and microhistory will be analyzed, between theoretical debates and case studies; - Finally, a focus will be made on contemporary migrations: population movements between the 20th and 21st centuries and the political use of migrations.
