HIST 13C
History of the U.S. and Its Colonial Origins: 20th Century
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Strongly recommended for History majors planning to take more advanced courses in U.S. history. Cultural heritages, political institutions, economic developments, and social interactions which created contemporary society. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
I agree that her lectures are very unorganized and all over the place. You're better off just reading the book yourself. But going to lectures helps to see where her focus is and catch the main themes which she stresses throughout the course. For the final and midterm she stressed what she would focus on and ask questions. TA's are helpful and help make the test questions which is good because students can have a say too. Finally, I really enjoyed the paper assignment because it made me put a relative's life into the context of history and therefore my life today. Overall she has good intentions but given the short amount of lecture time doesn't do her lectures justice.
I agree that her lectures are very unorganized and all over the place. You're better off just reading the book yourself. But going to lectures helps to see where her focus is and catch the main themes which she stresses throughout the course. For the final and midterm she stressed what she would focus on and ask questions. TA's are helpful and help make the test questions which is good because students can have a say too. Finally, I really enjoyed the paper assignment because it made me put a relative's life into the context of history and therefore my life today. Overall she has good intentions but given the short amount of lecture time doesn't do her lectures justice.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - I absolutely love this man! He is so passionate about history and his students. I took this class as a GE, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. He said on the first day that he wanted everyone to get an A. If you did the readings, you were set to do well. He was super entertaining during lecture, and I want to take more of his classes. Highly recommend.
Spring 2020 - I absolutely love this man! He is so passionate about history and his students. I took this class as a GE, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. He said on the first day that he wanted everyone to get an A. If you did the readings, you were set to do well. He was super entertaining during lecture, and I want to take more of his classes. Highly recommend.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2018 - I enjoyed this class. It was pretty much a review of the last part of AP US History, with a few lectures of some of the most recent history. Higbie is a good lecturer, but I didn't really feel like the lectures were relevant for the exams. There's one midterm and a final, both online "take home" and open book. However, they were quite difficult. Much of the material was little details from the textbooks rather than bigger themes or things we discussed in lecture. Discussion sections are mandatory for this class, but the TAs are nice and are engaging. Homework for the class is easy, just a 250 word response each week and a 5 page paper on how a moment in history has affected your current day life. Overall I liked the class and would take it again.
Spring 2018 - I enjoyed this class. It was pretty much a review of the last part of AP US History, with a few lectures of some of the most recent history. Higbie is a good lecturer, but I didn't really feel like the lectures were relevant for the exams. There's one midterm and a final, both online "take home" and open book. However, they were quite difficult. Much of the material was little details from the textbooks rather than bigger themes or things we discussed in lecture. Discussion sections are mandatory for this class, but the TAs are nice and are engaging. Homework for the class is easy, just a 250 word response each week and a 5 page paper on how a moment in history has affected your current day life. Overall I liked the class and would take it again.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2017 - Great GE, not too hard or too much work. The subject matter could be clearer, however, if Hudson could use slides instead of his lecture notes. Most of his lectures consist of around 50% historical facts and 50% the conclusions and opinions he draws from those facts. All in all recommend. Grade breakdown: 20% Attendance & Participation in Section 20% Midterm Essay 20% Pop quizzes (there's 4 of them, multiple choice, 10 questions each) 40% Final Essay (Yep, that's right. There's no actual in-class written test for this class. )
Spring 2017 - Great GE, not too hard or too much work. The subject matter could be clearer, however, if Hudson could use slides instead of his lecture notes. Most of his lectures consist of around 50% historical facts and 50% the conclusions and opinions he draws from those facts. All in all recommend. Grade breakdown: 20% Attendance & Participation in Section 20% Midterm Essay 20% Pop quizzes (there's 4 of them, multiple choice, 10 questions each) 40% Final Essay (Yep, that's right. There's no actual in-class written test for this class. )
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2016 - I thought I would write a quick review for those who are planning to take this class as an online GE during summer: There are basically only 2 aspects to the course if I remember correctly - one is to reply/post on the CCLE forum, and the other is a set of 3 papers you do over the 6 week period. All 3 papers are really really short (the first two are 5 pages and the last one is like 7 pages or something). Once I had detailed plans for each paper, I made 15 minute zoom appointments with my TA, who was really helpful. She gave me insight on what I was doing well and what needed to be improved. I ended up getting 100% on all 3 papers, and a A+ in the class. Dr. Kelley is really cool in real life but his recorded lectures were actually a little monotonous. The lecture lengths range, but it usually took me 3 hours to get through a 1 hour lecture because of the notes you have to take. He speaks really fast. P.S. You don't actually have to do the readings, but you must have some general idea of what is going on because you will need to cite the book for the papers.
Summer 2016 - I thought I would write a quick review for those who are planning to take this class as an online GE during summer: There are basically only 2 aspects to the course if I remember correctly - one is to reply/post on the CCLE forum, and the other is a set of 3 papers you do over the 6 week period. All 3 papers are really really short (the first two are 5 pages and the last one is like 7 pages or something). Once I had detailed plans for each paper, I made 15 minute zoom appointments with my TA, who was really helpful. She gave me insight on what I was doing well and what needed to be improved. I ended up getting 100% on all 3 papers, and a A+ in the class. Dr. Kelley is really cool in real life but his recorded lectures were actually a little monotonous. The lecture lengths range, but it usually took me 3 hours to get through a 1 hour lecture because of the notes you have to take. He speaks really fast. P.S. You don't actually have to do the readings, but you must have some general idea of what is going on because you will need to cite the book for the papers.
Most Helpful Review
Welcome back to high school! But no, really, I was kind of confused about why this is advertised as a college-level course. I realize it's a GE and that 20th century American history is not on the cutting edge of academia...but if the goal of this class was to transform my historical thinking, then it failed spectacularly. But yeah, set your expectations for this class pretty low. Professor Hernandez will trumpet the importance of the theme of "freedom." Don't be fooled; this is code for "understand how people in different eras were shaped by social currents." If you can articulate vague ideas about labor, race relations, immigration, and economic thinking while sprinkling in a few examples, you're good to go. Unfortunately, the course is so broad in trying to hit all of those themes that it never really delves into any critical examination. Example - a substantial chunk of time was devoted to explaining what containment was. Zero time was spent debating whether or not containment was actually effective. Is the class hard? Well, it kind of says something when your TA sends an email literally begging people who couldn't bother to show up to section (read: not participate, just SHOW UP) to drop the class rather than get a C or fail. Translation: if you're smart, you have nothing to worry about because this class is full of people who don't give a shit. Just make sure you go to lecture. Reading the textbook is wholly unnecessary; there may be some test IDs from the book, but it's largely irrelevant since that section allows you to discard 3-4 terms. In terms of grading, there's two midterms and a final, all of which are worth 20%. All the tests have the aforementioned IDs and a short essay asking you to evaluate a primary source. The final also has a question asking you to compare ideas about "freedom" from two different eras, i.e. post-WWII and the New Conservatism. Section is worth 40% - I know, right? So yeah, you kind of have to show up. Your TA will assign free writes, where you'll analyze a primary source and explain its content, context within the era, and significant. It's a completely vapid exercise because there's zero specificity in terms of how you're expected to respond. Even if everything you say is factually correct, if you don't mention exactly what you're looking for you'll get a 9 out of 10 at most instead of full marks. You also have to take a cultural field trip and write a two page report - not very hard. I got an A despite literally not studying for the final. If you're looking for an easy class, go ahead and take it, I guess. Just prepare yourself for canned lectures (drinking game: take a shot every time you hear the phrase "orgy of consumption") and uninspiring material.
Welcome back to high school! But no, really, I was kind of confused about why this is advertised as a college-level course. I realize it's a GE and that 20th century American history is not on the cutting edge of academia...but if the goal of this class was to transform my historical thinking, then it failed spectacularly. But yeah, set your expectations for this class pretty low. Professor Hernandez will trumpet the importance of the theme of "freedom." Don't be fooled; this is code for "understand how people in different eras were shaped by social currents." If you can articulate vague ideas about labor, race relations, immigration, and economic thinking while sprinkling in a few examples, you're good to go. Unfortunately, the course is so broad in trying to hit all of those themes that it never really delves into any critical examination. Example - a substantial chunk of time was devoted to explaining what containment was. Zero time was spent debating whether or not containment was actually effective. Is the class hard? Well, it kind of says something when your TA sends an email literally begging people who couldn't bother to show up to section (read: not participate, just SHOW UP) to drop the class rather than get a C or fail. Translation: if you're smart, you have nothing to worry about because this class is full of people who don't give a shit. Just make sure you go to lecture. Reading the textbook is wholly unnecessary; there may be some test IDs from the book, but it's largely irrelevant since that section allows you to discard 3-4 terms. In terms of grading, there's two midterms and a final, all of which are worth 20%. All the tests have the aforementioned IDs and a short essay asking you to evaluate a primary source. The final also has a question asking you to compare ideas about "freedom" from two different eras, i.e. post-WWII and the New Conservatism. Section is worth 40% - I know, right? So yeah, you kind of have to show up. Your TA will assign free writes, where you'll analyze a primary source and explain its content, context within the era, and significant. It's a completely vapid exercise because there's zero specificity in terms of how you're expected to respond. Even if everything you say is factually correct, if you don't mention exactly what you're looking for you'll get a 9 out of 10 at most instead of full marks. You also have to take a cultural field trip and write a two page report - not very hard. I got an A despite literally not studying for the final. If you're looking for an easy class, go ahead and take it, I guess. Just prepare yourself for canned lectures (drinking game: take a shot every time you hear the phrase "orgy of consumption") and uninspiring material.
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