Universal Contemporary History (from 1945)
Code: 106183 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Contemporary History, Politics and Economics | FB | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Beatrice Andreea Scutaru
- Email:
- beatrice.scutaru@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
Have not been established, but:
- Most of the subjects are taught in English. A B2 level of English of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is required, although no specific test of English proficiency level is held to access the degree.
Objectives and Contextualisation
This module addresses some of the main developments in world affairs since the end of the Second World War. This includes major international events – the origins, development and aftermath of the Cold War, as well as national and regional histories. Whilst interested in high politics, it also addresses, social movements, ideological change, and cultural developments. In doing so, it considers the political, social and cultural forces which have shaped the post-1945 world and which continue to inform our own contemporary times. The module aims to provide students with a framework of some of the main developments in world affairs since 1945, a knowledge of the background factors which influenced these developments, and an understanding of the historiographical debates surrounding them, and through these to develop the intellectual and transferable skills.
A special focus will be given to the global history of the Cold War and to the ways in which it has shaped the world in which we now live. Going beyond the Great Power confrontation, this module explores the impact of Cold War on East Central Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia, often underrepresented in traditional bipolar histories of the period. The module will focus on key moments in the Cold War to ensure that students have a strong grasp of the chronology of the conflict: the communist takeover of Eastern Europe, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cultural Revolution, the Vietnam War, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the collapse of Communism and end of the Cold War. Drawing on both classic and recent historiography, this module will explore the role of ideology and political ideas, the links between the Cold War and parallel histories of decolonisation, international development, globalisation, and European integration, and the way the conflict shaped understandings of society, science and culture.
Competences
- Describe the origin and development of the main current social, political and economic conflicts.
- Distinguish between and analyse the type of relations that have been established over the last century among the different social, political and economic agents on national, regional and international frameworks.
- Distinguish between governmental decision-making systems in different social and political contexts from the mid-twentieth century to the present day in state-, substate and suprastate frameworks.
- Explain and summarise knowledge acquired in English language at an advanced level.
- Recognise and contextualise texts referring to recent contemporary history.
- 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.
Learning Outcomes
- Express an opinion based on the nature, perspective and rigour of texts referring to the course content.
- Identify and summarise the basic bibliography on the main conflicts.
- Identify and synthesise the basic biography on the historical evaluation of the main governmental systems from the most interventionist to the most liberal.
- Make a brief comparison of national and/or regional cases within the same international framework.
- Recognise and explain different national and regional cases of relations between different social agents in contemporary history.
- 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.
- Write a review of a publication, documentary video or event (conference or seminar) in English adapted to the content of one or more subjects on this course.
Content
- The Second World War and its consequences
- The Cold War, definitions and origins
- A bipolar world? The USSR, the US and their spheres of influence
- New Asia
- Decolonization and social change, counter cultures
- Transnational collaborations and new backgrounds of Cold War competitions (e.g. migration, sports, music)
- The neoliberal turn and the end of the Cold War
- The post-Cold War world
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Attendance to guided seminars and mentoring sessions | 10 | 0.4 | 4, 1, 6, 5 |
| Theoretical lectures | 40 | 1.6 | 4, 2, 3, 5 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Debates and discussions | 5 | 0.2 | 4, 1, 2, 3, 6, 5 |
| Learning of information search strategies | 2 | 0.08 | 4, 2, 3, 6, 5 |
| Writing reviews, papers and analytical comments | 29 | 1.16 | 7, 6 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Self-study | 40 | 1.6 | 4, 2, 3, 6 |
- Theoretical lectures
- Attendance to guided seminars and mentoring sessions
- Learning of information search strategies
- Debates and discussions
- Writing reviews, papers and analytical comments
- Self-study
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final theoretical exam | 25% | 1 | 0.04 | 4, 1, 2, 3, 6, 5 |
| Mid-term theoretical exam | 35% | 1 | 0.04 | 4, 1, 2, 3, 6, 5 |
| Writing comentaries | 20% | 2 | 0.08 | 4, 7, 1, 6, 5 |
| Writing papers | 20% | 20 | 0.8 | 4, 7, 1, 2, 3, 6, 5 |
Assessment
The evaluation is continuous. Students must demonstrate their progress by completing activities and exams. The deadlines for these evaluation activities will be indicated in the calendar on the first day of class. All activities will have a deadline that must be strictly adhered to, according to the subject calendar. On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place. It is necessary to have obtained a minimum of 3.5 in each of the assessment tests in order to obtain a weighted average and make up for the failed tests. The weighting of the different evaluation elements will be as follows:
- Mid-term theoretical exam (25%)
- Final theoretical exam (35%)
- Primary source analysis (20%)
- Written commentaries (20%)
Related matters
The information about the evaluation, the type of evaluation activity and its weight on the subject is for information purposes only. The faculty responsible for the course will specify it at the beginning of the course.
Assessment activities review
When publishing final marks, the professor will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the professor.
Retake
Those students who have submitted activities whose weight is equivalent to two thirds or more of the final grade and who have obtained a weighted grade of 3.5 or more will have access to the recovery. Students will obtain a ‘Not assessed/Not submitted’ course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.
At the time of giving the final grade prior to the final grade of the course, the teacher will communicate in writing the recovery procedure.
Consideration of “not assessed”
Students will obtain a ‘Not assessed/Not submitted’ course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of theassessment items.
Irregularities in the evaluation activities
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.
In case of irregularity (plagiarism, copying, impersonation, etc.) in an evaluation activity, the grade of this evaluation activity will be 0. In case of irregularities in several evaluation activities, the final grade of the course will be 0.
Evaluation activities in which irregularities haveoccurred (such as plagiarism, copying, impersonation) are excluded from the recovery. It is considered as ‘copy’ a work that reproduces all or most of the work of another student, and as "plagiarism" the fact of presenting part or all of an author's text as one's own, that is, without citing the sources, whether published on paper or in digital form. In the case of copying between two students, if it is not possible to know who has copied whom, the sanction will be applied to both.
More information: http://www.uab.cat/web/study-abroad/undergraduate/academic-information/evaluation/what-is-it-about-1345670077352.html
Bibliography
Bibliography
- Autio-Sarasmo, Sari and Katalin Miklóssy (eds.) Reassessing Cold War Europe (Taylor & Francis, 2010).
- Brands, Hal, Latin America’s Cold War: An International History (Harvard University Press, 2010).
- Enderle-Burcel Gertrude, Piotr Franaszek and Dieter Stiefel (eds.) Gaps in the Iron Curtain: Economic Relations between neutral and Socialist States in Cold War Europe (Jagellonian University Press, 2009).
- Gaddis, John Lewis. We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (New York: Oxford University Press: 1997).
- Immerman, Richard H. and Petra Goedde (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of the Cold War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
- Jeronimo Bandeira, Miguel and António Costa Pinto (eds.), The Ends of European Colonial Empires. Cases and Comparissons (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
- Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. London: William Heineman, 2005.
- Leffler, Melvyn and Odd Arne Westad. The Cambridge History of the Cold War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 3 vol.
- Volume 1: Origins
- Volume 2: Crises and Détente
- Volume 3: Endings
- Joseph, Gilbert and Daniela Spenser (eds.). In From the Cold: Latin America's New Encounter with the Cold War (Durham/London: Duke University Press, 2008).
- Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945 (London: Blackwell, 2006).
- Maier, Charles, Among Empires: American Ascendancy and its Predecessors (2007).
- McMahon, Robert, Cold War. A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2003).
- Mitter, Rana (ed.), Across the Blocs: Exploring Comparative Cold War Cultural and Social History (Taylor & Francis, 2004).
- Muehlenbeck, Philip E. and Natalia Telepneva (eds.), Warsaw Pact Intervention in the Third World.Aid and Influence in the Cold War (London: Bloomsbury, 2018).
- Pons, Silvio (ed.), The Cambridge History of Communism (Cambridge (2017).
- Volume 2: The Socialist Camp and World Power 1941-1960s
- Volume 3: Endgames? Late Communism in Global Perspective
- Prashad, Vijay. Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World(New York: The New Press, 2008).Priestland, David. The Red Flag: Communism and the Making of the Modern World (Penguin UK, 2009).
- Roberts, Priscilla and Odd Arne Westad (eds.), China, Hong Kong, and the Long 1970s: Global Perspectives (London, 2017).
- Shipway, Martin, The Rise and Fall of Modern Empires vol. IV. Reactions to Colonialism (Routledge, 2016).
- Smith Andrew W.M. and Chris Jeppesen (eds.), Britain, France and the Decolonization of Africa: Future Imperfect? (UCL Press, 2017).
- Swift, John, The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of The Cold War (New York, 2003).
- Westad, Odd Arne. The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
- Yangwen, Zheng, Hong'an Liu, and Michael Szonyi, The Cold War in Asia: The Battle for the Hearts and Minds (Brill, 2010).
- Zubok, Vladislav. A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev, New Cold War History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007).
Academic journals (selection): Cold War History, Journal of Cold War Studies, Contemporary European History, Diplomatic History, The International History Review, Chinese Historical Review, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics
Software
It is not required
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 | 50 | English | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 50 | English | first semester | afternoon |