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2020/2021

Modern History III, the Age of Cold War

Code: 100347 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500501 History OB 3 2
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Francisco José Veiga Rodríguez
Email:
Francesc.Veiga@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
Yes

Prerequisites

Knowledge of international modern history prior to 1945 and basic reading proficiency in English are absolutely necessary for the class.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The goals to be achieved are the following: knowing and understanding the events of the so-called Cold War, in order to be able to extract the keys to explain its afthermaths. In fact, this subject is linked to current history. Thus, it seeks to get students used to argue professionally, as historians, and break the separation between their every-day and historiographic perception.
 
At the end of the course, students should have sufficient knowledge of the causes that led to the Cold War and the specificity of this phenomenon, as well as its phases, periods and actors on global scale. The processes of decolonization also be part of the curriculum, although they would need a specific subject. Other issues addressed are: economic and social evolution in the Western world and the Eastern bloc, religious fundamentalism in the 1970s and 80s, economic and social transition in the USSR and the People's Republic of China, and armed conflicts during the Cold War.
 
Depending on the time available at the end of the course, the period of the so-called Post-Cold War after 1991 shall also be addressed.

Competences

  • Critically assessing the fonts and theoretical models in order to analyse the different historical periods.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Mastering the basic diachronic and thematic concepts of the historical science.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Communicating in your mother tongue or other language both in oral and written form by using specific terminology and techniques of Historiography.
  2. Developing the ability of historical analysis and synthesis.
  3. Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
  4. Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  5. Identifying the social, economic and political structures of the contemporary world.
  6. Organising and planning the search of historical information.
  7. Recognising diversity and multiculturalism.
  8. Recognising the historical processes that led to the contemporary society.
  9. Relating elements and factors involved in the development of historical processes.
  10. Solving problems autonomously.
  11. Using the characteristic computing resources of the field of History.
  12. Using the specific work methods of Contemporary History.
  13. Working in teams respecting the other's points of view.

Content

1. Ideas for the start: power, institutions and international relations in the 20th century
2. The origins of the conflict: "The Second Thirty Years' War"
3. The post-war crisis and the beginning of the Cold War
5. The great rivals: USA and USSR in the 1950s and 60s
6. Post-war Europe: politics, economy and society
7. Decolonization and the "Third World"
8. 1968: the socio-cultural revolution and its consequences
9. The neoconservative turn and religious fundamentalism in the 1970s and 80s
10. Remodeling socialism: USSR and China in the 1970s and 80s
11. The neoliberal turn and "The End of History"
12. The return of history

Methodology

Attendance to the lectures.
Attendance to guided seminars and mentoring sessions.
Comprehensive text reading.
Writing papers and analytical comments.
Presentations and oral analysis.
Self-study.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures 40 1.6 2, 5, 8, 7, 9, 12
Seminars and guided practical exercises 10 0.4 10, 2, 3, 7, 13, 11
Type: Supervised      
Mentoring sessions 10 0.4 13
Modelled learning exercises 5 0.2 2, 5, 8, 12
Type: Autonomous      
Reading texts. Writing papers. Commenting on texts. Preparation of oral presentations and seminars. Search for bibliographic information 30 1.2 10, 2, 11
Self-study 45 1.8 10, 2, 11

Assessment

Standard regulations for a course without confinement incidents and / or teleteaching

As it was stablished  by the Degree Report, approved and in force, the subject will be evaluated regarding the following points:
 
a) Written tests (both partial and final), with cumulative marks that means up to 70% of the total maximum score that will be obtained;
b) Works, reviews, summaries, comments on the analysis of texts and other documents (statistical tables, graphs, maps, images, etc.) and / or preparation of oral comments and interventions in the seminar, with an accumulated score of up to twenty%. of the highest rating;
c) Exhibitions and oral or written comments in the discussion sessions and debate seminars, with an accumulated rating that means up to 10% of the maximum rating;
 
In general terms, in order to pass the subject, the student must obtain a score of 5 out of 10. On the other hand, each professor can set, if he / she thinks it is useful, a minimum that must be achieved in each of the elements a), b ) and c) here contemplated.
 
This translates into:
 
Two or three written exams (70%) spaced throughout the course.
A written work (20%).
Apprenticeships (10%)
 
The student will take a final reevaluation exam, on the date established by the Deanery, destined to reevaluate the students who failed the exams made during the course. Therefore, students must have been present in all the tests that appear in the teaching guide for the current year subject. And must have passed the minimum number of tests (exams) stipulated by the professor (2)

 

Warnings:
 
Only the evaluation activities carried out will be reevaluated and will be held on the official dates established by the Deanery. In no case,may the reavalution be considered as a means of improving the qualification of students who had already passed the subject in the normal process of continuous evaluation. The maximum grade that can be obtained in the re-evaluation is 5.0 (Approved)
 
The plagiarism of written sources (internet, books, works, etc.) or copy in the exam, supposes the annulment of the exercise. In this subject plagiarism control scanner is used
 
The students will have the right to review the results of the tests carried out. The professor will establish opportunely the mechanisms to do it.
 

No special individual exam will be applied or negotiated, regardless of the dates established for the common students. Any imponderable that can affect any specific student, with duly documented justification, will be resolved within the framework of thedates and calls set for all

 

Regulations for cases of confinement and / or teleteaching

Based on the experience of March-June 2020 teleteachung, in case the confinement occurs, this will involve a rethinkig about the number and pattern of exercises to be performed and the percentages of each model of test

In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

It will be the personal circumstances of those students who prove some specific difficulty arising from confinement, as well as foreigners who have returned to their country. All changes and adaptations will be consulted and agreed with Teaching Coordination of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History.

At the time of completion/delivery of each assessment activity, the teacher will inform (Moodle, SIA) of the procedure and date of revision of the grades.

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

The student will be classified as Non-evaluable when he has not delivered more than 30% of the evaluation activities.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Papers and exercises 40 4 0.16 10, 1, 4, 6, 7, 13, 12
Practical exercises 20 2 0.08 1, 2, 6, 3, 12, 11
Written tests 40 4 0.16 2, 5, 4, 8, 9

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CALVOCORESSI, Peter, Historia política del mundo contemporáneo. De 1945 a nuestros días, trad. Susana Sueiro Seone, Akal, Madrid, 1999.

CRANKSHAW, Edward, The New Cold War, Moscow v. Pekín, Penguin Books, 1963.

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