Learning objectives

This subject is shared by two degrees (Political Sciences and Sociology), so the main learning objectives will be placed in the framework of the specific competencies of the first common course of Sociology and Political Science, and the shared thematic block. This block is composed of subjects that allow students to approach political, economic and social processes, through an interdisciplinary approach to the mechanisms of collective action to the way those interact with the reality. Those subjects are:

1.20th Century World History

2.Constitution and Globalization

3.Political Economy

4.Social Psychology

Other subjects, labelled as “sociopolitical”, complement this first block. The learning objectives of all them are the following ones:

1.Provide students with fundamental notions on historical facts, so they can identify the social, political and economic factors that explain the 20th century.

2.Provide students with basic notions to analyze the scope of the 20th century political processes in international relations.

Moreover, this course draws upon and develops basic intellectual skills related with social, political and historical analysis:

1. Analyze the main events that unfolded world XX century history, with special mention to Europe, to better understand the origins of our modern world.

2. Reflect on change and continuity in History

3. Write a review, and analyze historical documents.

4. Write an essay about some event happened during the XX century using academic bibliography and primary sources.

Students must achieve the following learning results:

G001- Learn about concepts, theories and methodological approaches, and understand their meaning and relevance to observe the phenomena of the political environment.

G009- Synthetically analyze information regarding political problems and social needs, and develop a critical attitude and moral and intellectual rigor in the professional life.

CB3- Develop gathering and data interpretation skills (usually related to their area of study) to make judgments that include reflection on relevant issues of social, scientific or ethical nature.

CT1- Autonomy and self-regulation

CT5 - Digital Information and Citizenship Management

C1CC01- Identify, define and analyze the social, political and economic factors that explain the processes of change and continuity of the political and social reality.

C1CC03-Analize the political processes and their consequences at international level.

C1CC06- Consult secondary information in different sources (official institutions, libraries, Internet) and draw conclusions and reports from it.





The specific competencies of this subject are:

CE1. Know and understand the historical phases of the contemporary world, especially 20th century Europe

CE2. Identify and analyze the factors that explain the processes of change and continuity in contemporary times

CE3. Write an essay using the scientific tools learned in the course.



Learning outcomes

1 - Analyze and contrast, from a critical approach, the evolution of the main economic ideas on the different theoretical perspectives that exist to analyze reality.

2 - Interpret the mechanisms that govern a market of free competition thinking on the limits and failures that occur in the real market.

3 - Identify and interpret the main macroeconomic magnitudes that measure the economy of a country, analyzing the effects on the economic agents.

4 - Delimit the role and functions of the state in economic matters as well as the analysis of its performance through economic policy.

5 - Reflect on the new challenges facing economies: globalization, women and the economy, the green economy, the human and sustainable development.

6 - Appropriately use economic data and information from secondary sources to document reports and descriptive analyzes of the economics areas and/or applied to economic research.

1.Second industrial revolution, old and new nation-states, imperialism and European expansion, 1885-1914. The origins of the First World War

2.The First World War, 1914-1918

a.The causes of the conflict

b.The conflict

c.Social and political aspects

d.Peace treaties and their consequences

3.The Bolshevik Revolution, 1861-1922

a.The Czarist Russia

b.The revolutionary process

c.The making of the URSS

4.Society and Politics during the inter-war period, 1919-1939

a.The Great Depression, 1929. Social and economic changes

b.The crisis of the democracies

c.The rise of totalitarianism

5.The Second World War, 1939-1945

a.Two ways of full scale war: classic in the Western Front, extermination in the Eastern Front

b.The Genocide of European Jews

c.The defeat of Germany, Italy and Japan, and its consequences

6.The Cold War. The division of the World into two blocks. 1945-1989/91

a.Divided Europe

b.The making of the Welfare State in the Western World

c.The URSS and the Popular Democracies after the Second World War

7.The new international order, 1989/1991-2001

a.The end of the communism

b.The new Europe: From the European Economic Community to the European Union

c.Old and new powerful countries

d.New wars

e.Geopolitics between two centuries

8.The postmaterial society, 1968-2001. Social change, globalization and new capitalism

This subject is based on master and practical lessons. During the master classes, there will be exposed the theoretical contents of the subject. To deepen in those contents, bibliography will be provide to the students. This bibliography appears in the teaching guide. The bibliography will provide the foundational basis for the comprehension of the contents, so students are strongly recommended to read it before the class, so they can follow it under optimal conditions. In addition to it, the Professor will provide complementary materials in the master class (audiovisual, literary, artistic, popular culture), for the students improvement of their knowledge of each topic.

In the classroom practices, the Professor will introduce the rudiments of scientific work, and specifically she/he will explain how to development a scientific essay (structuring of the text, adequate semantic formulations, forms of citation, scientific databases). In those sessions, the Professor will also help the students to solve specific problems generated by the elaboration of the collective works that the students –those who choose continuous evaluation- must elaborate. In those sessions, students may be required to do an oral presentation.

In these practices, the Professor will paid special attention to the improvement of oral and written expression, as well as how the students introduce themselves in the scientific debate.





• Continuous Assessment System
• Final Assessment System
• Tools and qualification percentages:
  • Written test to be taken (%): 50
  • Team projects (problem solving, project design)) (%): 50

There are two ways to grade students, continuous and final (based on the UPV/EHU December 15, 2016 regulation). The grading criteria is ruled according to the following guidelines:

1.There are two calls: one in January (ordinary call) and another one in June (extraordinary call).

2.The ordinary call may be done via continuous and final grading ways. The deadline for choosing the latest is 9 weeks after the course starts, and the student MUST tell the Professor his/her decisión.

3.Those students that go for the continuos grading way are recommended to attend the master lesson. The assistance to the practical lessons (every 15 days) is COMPULSORY. Missing classes without proper documentation (i.e. a doctor’s note) will affect students´ participation grade. During these lessons, students will collaboratively develope an essay (exceptionally individually) that must be submited at the end of the semester. The guidelines will be given by the Professor at class. The essay counts 50% of the final mark. Should the student has not attend the practical lessons, the final mark will be 0.

4.For those who choose the final grading way, they must submit an essay on the exam day, based on scientific bibliography. For the exam be graded, this essay must be passed. Yet, this mark does not count for final grading.

5.The exam counts 100% of the final grade for those students who choose the final grading, and 50% for those who opt for the continuos grading.

6.All students will be evaluated the same day and through the same exam type.

1.The extraordinary call takes place in June. In this case, ALL the students will be graded according to the final grading way. This means that, for those students who, during the course have choose the continuous grading way, the grade obtained in the essay will not count for this extraordinary call. The exam will have the same characteristics as the one in the ordinary call.

Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes. The short Tweentieth Century, 1914-1991, London, 1994.

Michael Howard y W. Roger Louis (eds.), The Oxford History of the XX century, New York, 1998.

Mark Mazower, Dark continent. Europe´s Tweentieh century, London, 1999.

Javier Paredes (coord.), Historia universal contemporánea, vol. II, Barcelona, 1999.

Giulano Procacci, Historia general del siglo XX, Barcelona, 2000.

Ramón Villares y Ángel Bahamonde, El mundo contemporáneo. Siglos XIX y XX, Madrid, 2001.

Bernard Wasserstein, Barbarism and Civilisation, a History of Europe in our Time, New York, 2007
Arthur Koestler, Darkness at noon, New York, 2019

Basic bibliography

First chapter


Ricardo Miralles: Equilibio, hegemonía y reparto. Las relaciones internacionales entre 1870 y 1945. Madrid, 1996.


Jurgen Tampke, A perfidious distorsion of History: The Versailles Peace Treaty and the success of the Nazis, Brunsbick, 2017


Christopher A. Bayly: The birth of the Modern World, Madrid, 2010



Second chapter


Álvaro Lozano, La Gran Guerra (1914-1918), Madrid, 2014


Hew Strachan, The First World War, New York, Viking, 2004




Thrid Chapter


José M. Faraldo, La revolución rusa, Madrid, 2017.


Richard Pipes, La Revolución Rusa, Barcelona, 2016.



Fourth Chapter


Martin Kitchen, Europe between the two wars, London, 2006.


Fernando del Rey y Manuel Álvarez Tardío (dirs.), Políticas del odio. Violencia y crisis en las democracias de entreguerras, Madrid,2017.


John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash, 1929, Boston, 1955


Keynes, John M, La Teoría General del Empleo, el Interés y el Dinero, Madrid, 1998.



Fifth Chapter


Xosé M. Núñez Seixas, Imperios de muerte. La guerra germano-soviética, Barcelona, 2007


Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. New York, 2010



Sixth Chapter


Francisco Veiga, Enric Ucelay-Da Cal y Ángel Duarte, La paz simulada. Una historia de la guerra fría, Madrid, 2006


John Lewis Gaddis, La Guerra Fría, Barcelona, 2008



Seventh Chapter


Xosé M. Núñez Seixas, Las utopías pendientes. Una breve historia del mundo desde 1945, Barcelona, 2015


Francisco Veiga, El desequilibrio como orden, 1991-2014, Madrid, 2015



Eight Chapter


Tony Judt, Postwar, A History of Europe since 1945, London, Vintage, 2010


Francisco Veiga, El desequilibrio como orden, 1991-2014, Madrid, 2015


In-depth bibliography

Eric Hobsbawm, Historia del siglo XX, Barcelona, 1995.
Michael Howard y W. Roger Louis (eds.), Historia Oxford del siglo XX, Barcelona, 1999.
Mark Mazower, La Europa negra. Desde la Gran Guerra hasta la caída del comunismo, Barcelona, 2001.
Javier Paredes (coord.), Historia universal contemporánea, vol. II, Barcelona, 1999.
Giulano Procacci, Historia general del siglo XX, Barcelona, 2000.
Ramón Villares y Ángel Bahamonde, El mundo contemporáneo. Siglos XIX y XX, Madrid, 2001.
Bernard Wasserstein, Barbarie y civilización. Una historia de la Europa de nuestro tiempo, Barcelona, 2010.

Journals

AYER.https://www.ahistcon.org/revistaayer.html
HISTORIA CONTEMPORÁNEA.https://www.ehu.eus/ojs/index.php/HC/index
HISPANIA NOVA (on line).http://hispanianova.rediris.es/
REVISTA DE LIBROS.https://www.revistadelibros.com/
HISPANIA.http://hispania.revistas.csic.es/index.php/hispania
CUADERNOS DE HISTORIA CONTEMPORÁNEA. https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/CHCO
LA AVENTURA DE LA HISTORIA.https://www.laaventuradelahistoria.es/
BUSCADOR DE ARTÍCULOS, LIBROS Y ARTÍCULOS DE HISTORIA: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/

Web addresses

http://clio.rediris.es

http://seneca.uab.es/historia/index.htm

http://www.h-debate.com

http://www.rhodes.edu/edu.public

http://www.history-journals.de/hjg-search.htlm

http://clio.rediris.es

http://seneca.uab.es/historia/index.htm

http://www.h-debate.com

http://www.rhodes.edu/edu.public

http://www.history-journals.de/hjg-search.htlm