Aims

The primary aim of this course is to adopt a historical perspective and thus a critical distance to today's society, marked as it is by significant technological, social and economic change.. The course attempts to provide students with a historical reading of the contemporary period and in particular of the 20th century, whose roots lie in the break with the Ancien Régime from 1750 on, and in the second Industrial Revolution after the 1880s. It is hoped that giving students a better way of understanding the present, through reading about the past, will better equip them to reflect on the future.

Main themes

The course deals primarily with the period starting at the end of the 19th century up to the present day, examining the sources closely linked to 20th century history (industrial, demographic and space revolutions) as well as developments in economics, society, politics and culture from the Belle Epoque to the crisis at the end of the 20th century. There are three main objectives. The first is to provide information. The course provides students with information about a number of key events or indicates how this information can be obtained from bibliographical references. The second is to help students to understand. Aside from the events themselves, there are movements and developments whose significance or possible meaning is highlighted. In practical teaching terms, this is achieved through the analysis of cases dealing with the great crises of the 20th century: the Great Wars, the 1921 crisis, the 1929 crisis, the crisis of democracy and the crisis at the end of the 20th century. The third, primarily critical objective is to demonstrate the complex and relative nature of the available information and the precautions which must be taken in using it.

Content and teaching methods

The course content examines Europe and the world after 1750 (the first industrial revolution) and around 1880 (the second industrial revolution) - economic and social development between 1880 and the war in 1914 - the First World War: geopolitical issues, economic and social impact, in particular on the status of women, universal suffrage - the between-war years: the Great Depression, the emergence of extremist political experiments with the development of fascist regimes and the USSR - the Second World War and reconstruction - the Golden Sixties and the development of the market economy - from the first oil crisis to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Course entry requirements: none
Evaluation: There is a written examination made up of three questions: the first two questions are specifically on the subject matter studied in the course and require precise and detailed answers. The third question involves writing a summary and may require students to draw on different aspects of the course. To produce adequate answers to this third question, students will need to come up with a properly structured piece of work, with a plan and a detailed analysis.
Course materials: there are three types of course materials: the first is a course book 'le livre Histoire économique du XXe siècle' (LLN, Academia-Bruylants); the second is a set of OHP transparencies around which the lectures are structured. The third is the lectures themselves.

Other credits in programs