1) The first part of the course will be devoted to helping students understand the importance of history as a vehicle not only for knowledge but also as a critical and civic tool for living the present in an informed way.

2) In the second part, an effort will be made to acquaint students with the tools and methods of historians' work, in order to understand what is "behind" the teaching.

3) The third part of the course will provide a brief but critical and interpretative overview of the most relevant issues in contemporary history, from the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century, exploring, among other things, the links between the historical acceleration of the last two centuries or so and the current times that students find themselves living.

4) In the fourth part, the monographic section of the course will focus on one of the great historical issues of the contemporary age: the development of mass media, with particular reference to the relations between political communication and propaganda, between democracies and anti-democracies. The system of propaganda during the dictatorial regime of Fascism in Italy, which profoundly influenced subsequent Italian history up to the present day, will be examined as a case study. In this context, the course will examine some of the main media and themes of fascist communication languages, including the cult of the leader, the cinema, the imperial myth, the plebiscitary relationship between power and the people, and the condition of women.