HISTORY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN IN MODERN AGE

The aim of the course is to identify the historical and cultural roots of the phenomena that currently outline the relations of Western countries with North Africa and the Middle East. The attention will be focused on the Mediterranean Sea as a crossroads of different cultures, a place of confrontation, but also of osmotic cultural contacts and profitable diplomatic and commercial relations between the Christian and Islamic world.

The objective is, therefore, to analyse the historical plot that is intertwined among the countries
overlooking the Western and Eastern Mediterranean Sea and to deepen the historiographical coordinates
and the political, institutional, economic, religious and cultural aspects that outline the
current frictions with the Islamic world.

The lessons will depict the historical development of current political phenomena and
cultural activities that affect the Western and Eastern Mediterranean countries. In-depth seminars - focused on some key concepts for the understanding of the complex interactions between the Christian and Islamic world - are planned.

1)David Abulafia, Il grande mare. Storia del Mediterraneo, Mondadori, Milano 2016.

2) Luigi Mascilli Migliorini (a cura di), Storia del Mediterraneo moderno e contemporaneo, Guida, Napoli 2009.

3) Fernand Braudel, Civiltà e imperi del Mediterraneo nell'età di Filippo II, Einaudi, Torino 2007.

4) Géraud Poumarède, Il Mediterraneo oltre le crociate. La guerra turca nel Cinquecento e nel Seicento tra leggende e realtà, Utet, Torino 2012.

5) Salvo Andò, Un altro Mediterraneo è possibile, Aracne, Roma 2017.