The History of Modern Rome

This course will highlight the main events and characters that influenced modern Roman and Italian history, from the Counter-Reformation (circa 1545) to the end of the Second World War and of the Nazi-Fascist occupation of the peninsula (1945). Lectures and discussions in the classroom will be complemented by weekly study excursions to museums and other relevant sites. Among the topics that will be addressed are the rise of the Jesuit order, the impact of the battle of Lepanto (1571), the cases of Beatrice Cenci and Giordano Bruno, echoes of the siege of Vienna and Buda, the French revolution, Napoleon's invasion and the role of the papacy, the movement of the Carbonari, the two Roman Republics (1798 and 1848-49), the unification of Italy and the conquest of Rome, the relation of Church and State, Fascism and anti-Fascism, the Nazi occupation and the Resistance, the arrival of the Allied troops.