North American History and Institutions
A.Y. 2025/2026
Learning objectives
The course concerns the main political aspects of the history of the United States, considering the historical developments of the nation from its birth to the present, and offering critical discussions of some fundamental documents of U.S. History as well as of current affairs in the U.S. in historical perspective. Topics include the major schools of thought
and approaches, the connection between domestic and foreign politics, and the connection between the principles of the American republic and the pragmatism of its leadership. Concerning knowledge and understanding the course aims to apply original ideas in a research context, and to solve new problems in the field, making judgements on new issues, as well as the ability to communicate these skills to a broad publlic. Finally, with exercises of comprension of historical cases, we will try to obtain learning skills to study in an autonomus way.
and approaches, the connection between domestic and foreign politics, and the connection between the principles of the American republic and the pragmatism of its leadership. Concerning knowledge and understanding the course aims to apply original ideas in a research context, and to solve new problems in the field, making judgements on new issues, as well as the ability to communicate these skills to a broad publlic. Finally, with exercises of comprension of historical cases, we will try to obtain learning skills to study in an autonomus way.
Expected learning outcomes
The whole skills will enable the students to develop an ability to understand critically contemporary issues. They would be able to understand the complexity of contemporary world, perceive cultural, social and political interchanges, and behave as careful citizen in a world in transformation.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
History and Memory of U.S. Slavery
In the last decade, a growing conflict around history has emerged in the United States. In particular, anti-racist social movements like Black Lives Matter, in addition to demanding racial justice and the end of police violence, have started attacking traditional representations of the U.S. past as conveying an understanding of national history that concealed that concealed the oppression and erased the role of racial minorities.
Since the beginning, slavery has been at the center of this debate. In recent years, in fact, scholars, journalists and activists have been fostering a vision according to which slavery was not merely a paradox or a contradiction of American democracy, but its very foundation. In this view, slavery constituted a crucial, decisive element of U.S. history, which profoundly shaped its economic and political development, its institutional configuration, its constitutional framework, its social, racial and class relationships. The conservative reactions to this new narrative have triggered an ongoing debate over slavery and race that deeply intersects with contemporary conflicts of power in U.S. society.
In the attempt to better understand the meaning of contemporary conflicts over the U.S. past, this workshop will focus on the history and memory of U.S. slavery. In the first half, we will investigate the history of the enslavement of African Americans in the United States, analyzing how it was imposed, expanded, resisted and finally abolished. In the second half, we will study how the memory of slavery was perpetuated, falsified and represented after its abolition both by U.S. public discourse and by African Americans themselves through monuments, historiography, political thinking and popular culture. This second part will pay special attention to how the memory of slavery has been evolving between the late-nineteenth century and today in connection to U.S. social and political history.
In the last decade, a growing conflict around history has emerged in the United States. In particular, anti-racist social movements like Black Lives Matter, in addition to demanding racial justice and the end of police violence, have started attacking traditional representations of the U.S. past as conveying an understanding of national history that concealed that concealed the oppression and erased the role of racial minorities.
Since the beginning, slavery has been at the center of this debate. In recent years, in fact, scholars, journalists and activists have been fostering a vision according to which slavery was not merely a paradox or a contradiction of American democracy, but its very foundation. In this view, slavery constituted a crucial, decisive element of U.S. history, which profoundly shaped its economic and political development, its institutional configuration, its constitutional framework, its social, racial and class relationships. The conservative reactions to this new narrative have triggered an ongoing debate over slavery and race that deeply intersects with contemporary conflicts of power in U.S. society.
In the attempt to better understand the meaning of contemporary conflicts over the U.S. past, this workshop will focus on the history and memory of U.S. slavery. In the first half, we will investigate the history of the enslavement of African Americans in the United States, analyzing how it was imposed, expanded, resisted and finally abolished. In the second half, we will study how the memory of slavery was perpetuated, falsified and represented after its abolition both by U.S. public discourse and by African Americans themselves through monuments, historiography, political thinking and popular culture. This second part will pay special attention to how the memory of slavery has been evolving between the late-nineteenth century and today in connection to U.S. social and political history.
Prerequisites for admission
No prerequisites
Teaching methods
Classes will combine instructor lectures with active student participation in discussions, based on written and audiovisual sources, both primary and secondary.
Teaching Resources
For attending students, the exam will be based on:
1. Lecture notes.
2. Primary sources read and discussed in class (see syllabus).
3. One book chosen from the following:
- Ana Lucia Araujo, Slavery in the Age of Memory: Engaging the Past, Bloomsbury, 2021.
- Caron Knauer, American Slavery on Film, ABC-CLIO, 2023.
- Alessandra Lorini, Le statue bugiarde: immaginari razziali e coloniali nell'America contemporanea, Carocci, 2023.
- Alessandro Portelli, Il ginocchio sul collo: L'America, il razzismo, la violenza tra presente, storia e immaginari, Donzelli, 2020.
- Arnaldo Testi, I fastidi della storia: quale America raccontano i monumenti, Il Mulino, 2023.
- Erin L. Thompson, Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments, Norton, 2022.
It is in any case recommended to read in advance:
- Jonathan Scott Holloway, Breve storia degli afroamericani, Il Mulino, 2022.
For non-attending students, the exam will be based on:
1. Jonathan Scott Holloway, Breve storia degli afroamericani, Il Mulino, 2022.
2. One book chosen from the following:
- Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)
- Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
- Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery (1901)
- W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
- James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963)
- Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class (1981)
3. One book chosen from the following:
- Ana Lucia Araujo, Slavery in the Age of Memory: Engaging the Past, Bloomsbury, 2021.
- Caron Knauer, American Slavery on Film, ABC-CLIO, 2023.
- Alessandra Lorini, Le statue bugiarde: immaginari razziali e coloniali nell'America contemporanea, Carocci, 2023.
- Alessandro Portelli, Il ginocchio sul collo: L'America, il razzismo, la violenza tra presente, storia e immaginari, Donzelli, 2020.
- Arnaldo Testi, I fastidi della storia: quale America raccontano i monumenti, Il Mulino, 2023.
- Erin L. Thompson, Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments, Norton, 2022.
1. Lecture notes.
2. Primary sources read and discussed in class (see syllabus).
3. One book chosen from the following:
- Ana Lucia Araujo, Slavery in the Age of Memory: Engaging the Past, Bloomsbury, 2021.
- Caron Knauer, American Slavery on Film, ABC-CLIO, 2023.
- Alessandra Lorini, Le statue bugiarde: immaginari razziali e coloniali nell'America contemporanea, Carocci, 2023.
- Alessandro Portelli, Il ginocchio sul collo: L'America, il razzismo, la violenza tra presente, storia e immaginari, Donzelli, 2020.
- Arnaldo Testi, I fastidi della storia: quale America raccontano i monumenti, Il Mulino, 2023.
- Erin L. Thompson, Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments, Norton, 2022.
It is in any case recommended to read in advance:
- Jonathan Scott Holloway, Breve storia degli afroamericani, Il Mulino, 2022.
For non-attending students, the exam will be based on:
1. Jonathan Scott Holloway, Breve storia degli afroamericani, Il Mulino, 2022.
2. One book chosen from the following:
- Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)
- Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
- Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery (1901)
- W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
- James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963)
- Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class (1981)
3. One book chosen from the following:
- Ana Lucia Araujo, Slavery in the Age of Memory: Engaging the Past, Bloomsbury, 2021.
- Caron Knauer, American Slavery on Film, ABC-CLIO, 2023.
- Alessandra Lorini, Le statue bugiarde: immaginari razziali e coloniali nell'America contemporanea, Carocci, 2023.
- Alessandro Portelli, Il ginocchio sul collo: L'America, il razzismo, la violenza tra presente, storia e immaginari, Donzelli, 2020.
- Arnaldo Testi, I fastidi della storia: quale America raccontano i monumenti, Il Mulino, 2023.
- Erin L. Thompson, Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments, Norton, 2022.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The final assessment will consist of a written exam with four open-ended questions, lasting two hours. Evaluation will focus on the student's ability to demonstrate critical and analytical skills; to read, interpret, and historically contextualize sources; to establish connections among the main themes discussed in the course; and to use language appropriate to the discipline.
SPS/05 - AMERICAN HISTORY AND INSTITUTIONS - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours
Professor:
Rossi Matteo Maria
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