This course is based on various lessons I have taught for instance at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and on the course I taught at the University of Lodz, Poland in spring 2019.
The course is an introduction to the history of the Italian fascism, a movement, a political party and the regime in power in Italy since 1922, when Benito Mussolini was nominated prime minister of the country, till spring 1945, when the fascist regime was finally dismantled.
After this course, you will understand:
- the development of the fascist regime
- the meaning of the terms “fascism”, “national socialism”, “neo-fascism”, “post-fascism”, “totalitarianism”
- the horros the fascist regime committed
- the reasons for the regime’s and especially Mussolini’s popularity
The course includes three sections. Below is the list and description of all the sections.
- “CHRONOLOGY”. During this section we shall have the overview of the development of fascism from a movement, to a political party PNF (Partito nazionale fascista – The Italian National Fascist Party) and finally to a regime that ruled the country for 20 years. Even though the PNF was dissolved already in 1943, its legacy and memory still persist in different neo-fascist ja and post-fascist movements and political parties in Italy. The most important of them is obviously I Fratelli D’Italia (The Brothers of Italy) that is the political party of the actual prime minister Giorgia Meloni. What are these parties and movements, and what is actually Mussolini’s legacy in them?
- ” MUSSOLINI“. In this section we shall explore Benito Mussolini’s personal history before the WWI till his death in 1945, without forgetting his personal cult that developed in the 1930’s, and his mythical memory that is still powerful in today’s Italy.
- “SOLUTION TO THE CHALLENGES OF THE MASS SOCIETY“. The popularity of fascism among some parts of the population was in great deal based on the fact that Mussolini seemed to be able to modernize the Italian society and to offer valid solutions to different problems of the modern, industrialized and urbanized society. Which were these problems, and what was the solution that fascism offered? What was the dark side of fascism’s social politics?
Target group: this course is targeted to anybody interested in the Italian fascism. You don’t need any prior knowledge, but understanding the European history during the early 20th century will surely be useful. Otherwise, you can always fill the gaps and read more during the course.
Once you enroll to the course, you will have access to it for 90 (ninety) days. After this period, all your data will be deleted and the access denied.
The course starts with a challenge exam. With this exam you can test your knowledge about Italy’s history of the early 20t century and update them, if needed. Whether you pass the exam or not, you are most welcome to participate to the course. The exam only informs you about certain central facts that might be useful to know in order to get the most out of this course, and you will get the results and correct answers immediately you have completed the exam.
Once you start the course, you can visualize the course content with a navigation bar on the left side of the screen, and willingly you can also collapse it and then visualize it again.. As this course is entirely facultative, and the participation is based on your personal interests, you don’t need to follow the course linearly, but jump to the topics you are interested in, and vice versa, skip the ones you are not particularly keen on. However, linear proceeding is recommended, as some topics might be difficult to understand without knowing the previous topics.
The course is thus divided into three sections, as mentioned above. Each section contains lessons that are divided into topics. In each topic you will have a video and a slide. You can play the video by clicking the “play” arrow / button. In some cases the video is so small that you will not see the play button. In this case please click the three vertical dots on the video, and you will find the play button when scrolling as up as you can, after the full screen view. Here you can also adjust the size of the video; you can also adjust the size of the slide by hoovering the cursor on the slide and hitting twice the Ctrl key.
In each sections there are quizzes with which you can understand your learning achievements. These quizzes are exclusively for you; you will see your results as soon as you finish a quiz, and if you wish can try to do them as many times as you wish. Unfortunately, LearnDash does store the results of the quizzes, so once you start a quiz, you need to finish it at one time, in order to see your results and the correct answers.
After the completion of the course, you will be awarded a certification – if you wish so. In order to get the certification, you need to complete the entire course by clicking “completed” after each topic, when you have watched the video, and do all the quizzes and assignments. In order to complete a quiz successfully, you need to have 80% of the answers correct.
I hope this was all, so let’s get started: welcome to explore Italian fascism, one of the most important political ideologies and movements / parties in the European history!
The entire course content is visible here below, and if you are still not sure about this course being interesting for you, please feel free to see the free sample lessons. And if you take the course, please don’t forget to give your precious feedback, for instance with the contact form here below.
Do you have any questions? Please, contact me by filling the form here below.
