20th Century Dictatorships and Democracy
Code: 100383 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| History | OT | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Andreu Espasa De la Fuente
- Email:
- andreu.espasa@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
They do not exist
Objectives and Contextualisation
The course aims to study the political history of the United States of America, with a special emphasis on the evolution of American democracy and the attempts to expand its influence in the world.
Competences
- Applying the main methods, techniques and instruments of the historical analysis.
- 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.
- Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- 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 be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
Learning Outcomes
- Appropriately identifying and using information sources for the historical research, specially about contemporary political regimes.
- Communicating in your mother tongue or other language both in oral and written form by using specific terminology and techniques of Historiography.
- Critically summarising the various historiographical explanations about the emergence and evolution of political regimes in the contemporary era.
- Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
- Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
- Organising and planning the search of historical information.
- Properly using the specific vocabulary of History.
- Recognising diversity and multiculturalism.
- Solving problems autonomously.
- Submitting works in accordance with both individual and small group demands and personal styles.
- Using the characteristic computing resources of the field of History.
Content
Introduction: dictatorships and democracies, general concepts.
1. A nation's building: from Colonial America to the Civil War.
2. The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.
3. The two world wars and the rise of the American Century.
4. The Cold War.
5. From the Keynesian consensus to the rise of neoliberalism.
6. Epilogue: from 1991 to the present day.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Theoretical classes | 45 | 1.8 | 1, 6, 4, 3, 7, 11 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Theoretical classes | 15 | 0.6 | 2, 1, 6, 4, 10, 7 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Elaboration of a paper (30.000 characters) | 15 | 0.6 | 9, 2, 4, 10, 8, 3, 7 |
| Elaboration of a work of reduced dimensions (10.000 characters) | 5 | 0.2 | 9, 2, 5, 10, 8, 3, 7, 11 |
| Personal study | 40 | 1.6 | 9, 1, 5, 3 |
| Reading texts | 8 | 0.32 | 9, 5, 3 |
- Classroom practices.
- Public introduction of the compulsory readings.
- Group discussions about compulsory readings.
- Writing papers.
- Reading articles.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elaboration of a paper (30.000 characters) | 35% | 15 | 0.6 | 9, 2, 4, 10, 8, 3, 7 |
| Elaboration of a work of reduced dimensions (10.000 characters) | 15% | 5 | 0.2 | 9, 2, 5, 6, 10, 8, 3, 7, 11 |
| Exam | 50% | 2 | 0.08 | 2, 1, 5, 3, 7 |
The exam may include questions on the topics covered in class and on the compulsory readings.
The article must be an analysis of a fiction film. In the process of choosing it, the student must make a proposal to the teacher to obtain his approval.
The small-scale work will be a review of a U.S. history book. In the process of choosing the book to review, the student will have to make a proposal to the teacher to obtain his approval.
At the time of completion/delivery of each assessment activity, the teacher will inform of the procedure and date of revision of the grades.
All assessment activities will be reassessed independently, maintaining their weight in the final grade.
In order to pass the continuous assessment, it is necessary to achieve an average grade equal to or higher than 5 in the three assessable activities. It is also necessary to have passed a grade of 4 in the final exam.
The student will be classified as Non-evaluable when he has not delivered more than 30% of the evaluation activities.
The single evaluation option will consist of a written exam, which will include two general development questions (50%), a case study (25%) and an analysis of primary sources (25%). The same assessment method as continuous assessment will be used.
To participate in the second-chance examination, the student must have previously been evaluated in a set of activities whose weight is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade (CONTINUED ASSESSMENT) or submit all the tests planned (SINGLE ASSESSMENT).
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.
This subject entirely prohibits the use of AI technologies in all of its activities. Any submitted work that contains content generated using AI will be considered academic dishonesty; thecorresponding grade will be awarded a zero, without the possibility of reassessment. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken
Bibliography
COMPULSORY READINGS:
ERIC FONER, La historia de la libertad en Estados Unidos, Barcelona: Península, 2010.
Gerardo GURZA, "Donald Trump y Andrew Jackson: el significado de una comparación", en Ana Rosa SUÁREZ ARGÜELLO (coordinadora), Descifrando a Trump desde la Historia, Ciudad de México: Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, 2020, pàg. 17-35.
Frederick DOUGLASS, Vida d'un esclau americà explicada per ell mateix, Girona: Edicions de la Ela Geminada, 2020, pp. 25-76.
Angela Y. DAVIS, Dones, raça i classe, Barcelona: Tigre de Paper, 2022, pàg. 77-92.
Sam PIZZIGATI, Los ricos no siempre ganan: el triunfo sobre la plutocracia que originó la clase media, Madrid, Capitán Swing, 2015, pp. 151-186.
Aurora BOSCH, “Estados Unidos en los años treinta: ¿Un socialismo imposible?”, Historia Social, núm. 11. otoño de 1991, pàg. 39-55.
Daniel IMMERWAHR, Cómo ocultar un imperio. Historia de las colonias de Estados Unidos, Madrid: Capitán Swing, 2023, pp. 357-409.
Peter NOVICK, Judíos, ¿vergüenza o victimismo?: el holocausto en la vida americana, Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2007, pàg. 143-162.
Jonathan NEALE, La Otra historia de la guerra del Vietnam, Barcelona: El Viejo Topo, 2003, pp. 85-109.
Gary GERSTLE, Auge y caída del orden neoliberal. La historia del mundo en la era del libre mercado, Barcelona: Península, 2023.
Samuel P. HUNTINGTON, ¿Quiénes somos?: los desafíos a la identidad nacional estadounidense, Barcelona: Paidós,2004, pàg. 259-297.
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Christian G APPY, La guerra de Vietnam: una historia oral, Barcelona: Crítica, 2012
Aurora BOSCH, Historia de los Estados Unidos, Barcelona: Crítica, 2010.
Alan BRINKLEY, Historia de Estados Unidos: un país en formación, Columbus: McGraw-Hill Education, 2018.
Luciano CANFORA, La Democracia: historia de una ideología, Barcelona: Crítica, 2004.
Noam CHOMSKY, El miedo a la democracia, Barcelona: Crítica, 2009.
Roxanne DUNBAR-ORTIZ, La historia indígena de Estados Unidos, Madrid: Capitán Swing, 2018.
Steve FRASER and Gary GERSTLE, Ruling America: a History of Wealth and Power in a Democracy, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009.
Gary GERSTLE, Libertad y coacción: la paradoja del gobierno estadunidense desde su fundación hasta el presente, Ciudad de México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2017.
Richard HOFSTADTER, La tradición política norteamericana y los hombres que la formaron, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1984.
Maurice ISSERMAN and Michael KAZIN, America divided: the civil war of the 1960s, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
David M. KENNEDY, Entre el miedo y la libertad: los EE.UU., de la Gran Depresión al finde la Segunda Guerra Mundial (1929-1945), Barcelona:Edhasa, 2005.
James T. PATTERSON, El gigante inquieto: Estados Unidos, de Nixon a G. W. Bush, Barcelona: Crítica, 2006.
Ronald E. POWASKI, La guerra fría: Estados Unidos y laUnión Soviética, 1917-1991, Barcelona: Crítica, 2015.
Kristin THOMPSON, David BORDWELL i Jeff SMITH, Film history: an introduction, New York: McGraw Hill, 2022.
John A. THOMPSON, A Sense of Power: The Roots of America's Global Role, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2016.
Alexis DE TOCQUEVILLE, La democracia en América, Ciudad de México, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2020.
Adam TOOZE, El diluvio. La Gran Guerra y la reconstrucción del Orden Mundial (1916-1931), Barcelona: Crítica, 2018.
Lars SCHOULTZ, Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy toward Latin America, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998.
Odd Arne WESTAD, La Guerra Fría, Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg, 2018.
Gordon S. WOOD, La revolución norteamericana, Barcelona: Mondadori, 2003.
Software
Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | second semester | morning-mixed |