GE CLST 60A
America in Sixties: Politics, Society, and Culture, 1954 to 1974
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Course 60A is enforced requisite to 60B, which is enforced requisite to 60CW. Limited to first-year freshmen. Interdisciplinary exploration of U.S. society from Brown versus Board of Education (1954) to resignation of Nixon. Topics include civil rights, Great Society, anti-Vietnam war movement, political and artistic countercultures, and changes in technology, law, and media. Letter grading.
Units: 6.0
Units: 6.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2024 - Professor Decker was in the kindest words, the most boring. While I do believe Decker has great value in his lectures and is very knowledgeable in his topics, he is very bad keeping the students engaged. His lectures can get boring fast is not the most engaging either. His lectures are important and useful when the literature paper comes up later in the quarter. He's a well meaning professor. Onto the class in general, I recommend this cluster for those who are interested in history, politics, and culture but also can deal with some more dense long readings. While the readings are helpful to understand lectures better, the reading isn't too important until the midterm when they expect you to cite some readings in the timed essay. When it came to the workload I would say it was pretty light, the first two weeks you are assigned reading forms to encourage doing the weekly readings and can be finished in 15 minutes. After this you have only two assignment, a political science paper explaining the choices you made in making a 15 second campaign ad from any president between 1955-1975. The final assignment is a literature paper on a one of two books due in December. The class is not recorded but lecture slides are posted on BruinLearn. The only serious downside to this cluster would be grading, grading is completely up to your TA. Some TA's may grader stricter than others. In general your TA will make this class pleasant or difficult depending on their grading. I will highly recommend this cluster but do recommend you take into consideration the long readings and TA grading.
Fall 2024 - Professor Decker was in the kindest words, the most boring. While I do believe Decker has great value in his lectures and is very knowledgeable in his topics, he is very bad keeping the students engaged. His lectures can get boring fast is not the most engaging either. His lectures are important and useful when the literature paper comes up later in the quarter. He's a well meaning professor. Onto the class in general, I recommend this cluster for those who are interested in history, politics, and culture but also can deal with some more dense long readings. While the readings are helpful to understand lectures better, the reading isn't too important until the midterm when they expect you to cite some readings in the timed essay. When it came to the workload I would say it was pretty light, the first two weeks you are assigned reading forms to encourage doing the weekly readings and can be finished in 15 minutes. After this you have only two assignment, a political science paper explaining the choices you made in making a 15 second campaign ad from any president between 1955-1975. The final assignment is a literature paper on a one of two books due in December. The class is not recorded but lecture slides are posted on BruinLearn. The only serious downside to this cluster would be grading, grading is completely up to your TA. Some TA's may grader stricter than others. In general your TA will make this class pleasant or difficult depending on their grading. I will highly recommend this cluster but do recommend you take into consideration the long readings and TA grading.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - Taking this cluster is one of my best experiences here at UCLA. For those of you who are deciding whether or not to take this class: there will be 2 lectures (75 minutes each) and 1 discussion (1h50min, ik it's long). There will be 2 essays (poli sci 30% + English literature 30%), a midterm (20%), and discussion score. For 60A, there is no final, but for 60B, there is no midterm but a final that is cumulative. Now I've finished taking 60B, and I'm grateful for how much I learned from this class. This class is really interesting and enriching if you are interested in this period, but the workload can also be pretty big (that's expected for a 6-unit cluster, though). Personally I think if you are a humanities/social science and good at writing, go for it. But if you are a STEM person and hate reading/writing, you would probably have to spend more time considering whether to take this class and going over other reviews. Here are some suggestions: (a) I don't do the reading ever since week 2. Trust me you don't have to do the reading because professors will cover all you need to know during the lectures; b) go to lectures and take notes; c) your essay scores are TA-dependent, so go to their office hours and ask for suggestions; d) some TAs are strict about grading participation in discussions but some are not, but I would say participate; e) for each of the professor: Vavreck (polisci) is clear and interesting and organized; Avila (history) is clear but sometimes boring; Fink (music) is really interesting but sometimes unclear; Decker (English) is the most boring prof, but try to stick to his lectures as he is also knowledgable.
Fall 2023 - Taking this cluster is one of my best experiences here at UCLA. For those of you who are deciding whether or not to take this class: there will be 2 lectures (75 minutes each) and 1 discussion (1h50min, ik it's long). There will be 2 essays (poli sci 30% + English literature 30%), a midterm (20%), and discussion score. For 60A, there is no final, but for 60B, there is no midterm but a final that is cumulative. Now I've finished taking 60B, and I'm grateful for how much I learned from this class. This class is really interesting and enriching if you are interested in this period, but the workload can also be pretty big (that's expected for a 6-unit cluster, though). Personally I think if you are a humanities/social science and good at writing, go for it. But if you are a STEM person and hate reading/writing, you would probably have to spend more time considering whether to take this class and going over other reviews. Here are some suggestions: (a) I don't do the reading ever since week 2. Trust me you don't have to do the reading because professors will cover all you need to know during the lectures; b) go to lectures and take notes; c) your essay scores are TA-dependent, so go to their office hours and ask for suggestions; d) some TAs are strict about grading participation in discussions but some are not, but I would say participate; e) for each of the professor: Vavreck (polisci) is clear and interesting and organized; Avila (history) is clear but sometimes boring; Fink (music) is really interesting but sometimes unclear; Decker (English) is the most boring prof, but try to stick to his lectures as he is also knowledgable.
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