This class is hard. Not easy. The readings were impossible to be finished. Take home midterm essay and final. It is quite boring. U might not have to read to get an A in the class

Selling required texts for the course:
The Little Flowers of Saint Francis
The Life of Saint Teresa
The Return of Martin Guerre

Text for more info 909 545 2151

Selling required texts for the course:
The Little Flowers of Saint Francis
The Life of Saint Teresa
The Return of Martin Guerre

Teo himself is an absolutely wonderful man. His lectures are extremely insightful and he presents the course material in a way that is enjoyable and easy to understand. In my opinion though, his TA's ruin the entire experience. I often found myself stressed out over my TA's harsh criticism for wrong answers in discussion. I ended up focusing more on her preferred writing style rather than on actual content or expanding my own opinions while writing the essays. This class has extreme potential to be an eye-opening analysis on the nature of history, but you find yourself caught up in workload too much to thoroughly enjoy this class. I think I'll make it out with a B+, but that came at the price of many long nights of reading and essay writing. I'm upset that my TA gave me a negative impression of this class because Teo is truly a wonderful man. If you are luck enough to get a good TA, or are even luckier and get into Teo's section, this class will be outstanding. However, my personal experience with my TA has ultimately made me regret taking this class, and I will be happy once it's over.

If you are taking this class solely because it is easy, be warned that this class is not really all that easy. If you plan on not reading, not doing an extra credit performance during lecture, or in general not really putting much effort into the class, this class is more of an easy B+ for you. This class is an easy A if you do a performance in front of everyone during lecture. And if you are slightly interested in the material.
If you have zero interest in the class, will read nothing, then this class may be a little more difficult than you suppose. Also depending on your TA, your experience in this class could be hell. The TA could force you to read 200 page books every other week, and make you write paragraphs. I had a fairly easy TA, but I think I'll barely make an A- with my 20% efforts.

TAKE HIM. TAKEEEE HIM!!!!!!!

Selling brand new History 2C course reader
text (818)292-0701 for more information

This is easily one of my favorite classes I've taken, thus far in my college career (as a junior). I took him during the shortened summer session, and I can't begin to express how much I loved this class. Like many others have said, I didn't love the class because of the subject or because the material was absurdly interesting. Rather, what makes this class awesome is Teo. A 70-year old man, well-known academic, national humanities award recipient, etc.; however, he never boasts or acts better than anyone else.
In fact, he continually states to call him by his first name; that even though he is old, he knows nothing; that he doesn't claim to know any absolute truths; and that the more education he has, the more questions he has. In this class, there were a good 70ish people; yet, by the 3rd week, he had memorized almost everyone's name. I hardly even spoke to him, and whenever I would walk into class late, he would always say oh, there's my friend, Mr. Last Name. And, anytime I would raise my hand when he called out attendance, he would immediately remark, "I know. I know." Just from that, you should be able to tell how much he cares. Come to this class to learn about life, have someone who is truly invested in helping you and be humbled along the way.
This is one of the classes that I will always remember because of Teo.

Took History 2C with Ruiz in Spring 2012. Maybe my expectations were too high, but he wasn't as incredible/amazing as people were saying. Sure, the witch act was fun on the first day, and yes the class was easy as hell (no pun intended). But the lectures, despite being filled with energy, were not particularly interesting.

Also, there is so much reading assigned that there is no way to do it all, and almost everyone compromises by doing none. This class for me was essentially going to section and talking about readings I didn't read, pulling two all-nighters to write reasonably easy papers, and doing an extra credit performance. Want an easy A? Go for it, but the topic is not nearly as fun as it sounds.

Took History 2C with Ruiz in Spring 2012. Maybe my expectations were too high, but he wasn't as incredible/amazing as people were saying. Sure, the witch act was fun on the first day, and yes the class was easy as hell (no pun intended). But the lectures, despite being filled with energy, were not particularly interesting.

Also, there is so much reading assigned that there is no way to do it all, and almost everyone compromises by doing none. This class for me was essentially going to section and talking about readings I didn't read, pulling two all-nighters to write reasonably easy papers, and doing an extra credit performance. Want an easy A? Go for it, but the topic is not nearly as fun as it sounds.