HIST 13B
History of the U.S. and Its Colonial Origins: 19th Century
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. 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
Note: The following information is subject to change. Lecture: Professor Aron is an enthusiastic lecturer. The lecture slides are uploaded to the course website, but they mostly contain headlines. The professor uses the slides as a guideline and gives more in depth information in lecture. Discussion: Participation counts for 20% of grade. Depends on TA, but in my section (Aaron Freeman) we discussed the coursereader assigned readings. Some TAs may give extra writing assignments. Textbooks: The Foner textbook contains assigned readings. It can be used for papers but is not required for the midterm. The coursereader contains the assigned readings that are discussed in section and is the best source for quotes for the papers. Midterm: The midterm (20% of grade) is composed solely of information found on the lecture slides. It includes three sections. Section 1 consists of 15 people/events and you choose 10 and write 3-4 sentences about each. Section 2 consists of 3 primary source quotes and you choose 2 and write 4-5 sentences about each. Section 3 consists of 5 images and you choose 3 and write 4-5 sentences about each. Any event/person/image is fair game no matter how seemingly unimportant (i.e. Mungo Park). The exam is not difficult as long as you prepare. Papers: The class includes 2 papers (the second in lieu of a final). The first paper (20% of grade) is 1000 words and is fairly open ended. The second paper (40% of grade) is 1500 words and includes a choice of various topics. The TA grades the paper so they will set the required number of primary source quotes. I ended up with an A in the class.
Note: The following information is subject to change. Lecture: Professor Aron is an enthusiastic lecturer. The lecture slides are uploaded to the course website, but they mostly contain headlines. The professor uses the slides as a guideline and gives more in depth information in lecture. Discussion: Participation counts for 20% of grade. Depends on TA, but in my section (Aaron Freeman) we discussed the coursereader assigned readings. Some TAs may give extra writing assignments. Textbooks: The Foner textbook contains assigned readings. It can be used for papers but is not required for the midterm. The coursereader contains the assigned readings that are discussed in section and is the best source for quotes for the papers. Midterm: The midterm (20% of grade) is composed solely of information found on the lecture slides. It includes three sections. Section 1 consists of 15 people/events and you choose 10 and write 3-4 sentences about each. Section 2 consists of 3 primary source quotes and you choose 2 and write 4-5 sentences about each. Section 3 consists of 5 images and you choose 3 and write 4-5 sentences about each. Any event/person/image is fair game no matter how seemingly unimportant (i.e. Mungo Park). The exam is not difficult as long as you prepare. Papers: The class includes 2 papers (the second in lieu of a final). The first paper (20% of grade) is 1000 words and is fairly open ended. The second paper (40% of grade) is 1500 words and includes a choice of various topics. The TA grades the paper so they will set the required number of primary source quotes. I ended up with an A in the class.
Most Helpful Review
Prof. Dubois was a great professor. She's one of the best professor i've had at UCLA. She shows concern for the student's learning. She even came to discussion and sat through the whole thing, making sure we were grasping the material. She shows an outline of what each lecture is about and goes through the outline. She is very organized in her lectures - showing slides as she lectures, providing an excellent way to have good mental picture of what she is talking about. DuBois makes history very very interesting. She tells history like its supposed to be - a story. The lectures are very easy to follow and DuBois effectively lectures in way to understand history from different aspects. You can tell that she's very knowledgable and enthusiastic about the subject. The midterm and final weren't too difficult. the lectures are basically of what is covered in the textbooks, not to mention the textbooks are easy to read and not boring. i would definitely take another class that is taught by DuBois.
Prof. Dubois was a great professor. She's one of the best professor i've had at UCLA. She shows concern for the student's learning. She even came to discussion and sat through the whole thing, making sure we were grasping the material. She shows an outline of what each lecture is about and goes through the outline. She is very organized in her lectures - showing slides as she lectures, providing an excellent way to have good mental picture of what she is talking about. DuBois makes history very very interesting. She tells history like its supposed to be - a story. The lectures are very easy to follow and DuBois effectively lectures in way to understand history from different aspects. You can tell that she's very knowledgable and enthusiastic about the subject. The midterm and final weren't too difficult. the lectures are basically of what is covered in the textbooks, not to mention the textbooks are easy to read and not boring. i would definitely take another class that is taught by DuBois.
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Winter 2025 - I took HIST 13B in Winter 2025 with Prof Marino and TA Marcellin. I am biased because I generally like history, but this was a pretty awesome class. When it comes to the workload, this was a really light GE: there were no quizzes or exams except for weekly InQuizitives, which allow you to answer as many questions as you need to reach a target score. The weekly InQuizitives and lectures were based on the textbook "Give Me Liberty" by Eric Foner, which is available as an online edition. The only large assignments were a midterm paper and a final paper worth 20% and 30%, respectively. Discussion sections, when I took the course, had a weekly short response to write based on one of the week's primary sources. Content-wise, HIST 13B felt very much like whatever part of APUSH covers the 19th century, but magnified. Coming from an APUSH background, this was nice because I had a gist of what happened but the class was still interesting as it went into a lot more detail and nuance. The content is relatively progressive leaning, but I like how while it doesn't paint American history as innocent or perfect it also isn't afraid to praise the moral underpinnings of our country where they were apparent. I left the class feeling like a very nuanced picture was painted of 19th century American history, which is what you should feel IMO, rather than seeing one side of history. There were some guest lecturers sprinkled throughout the quarter who provided a lot of more niche but interesting topics, e.g. one lecture was devoted solely to talking about the Civil War through everyday artifacts, media, house items, etc that remain from the time. I had Marcellin as my TA and he was great. I like how in discussions he invited us to dig deeper into how different primary sources and how they connect. He was also helpful when I walked into office hours and asked for feedback on my final essay outline. Sorry for the long blurb. I tend to write a lot, but if anything, take that as an indication that this class was something really great and I would recommend it to anyone interested in a relatively easy but enriching GE. Very relevant to our current age
Winter 2025 - I took HIST 13B in Winter 2025 with Prof Marino and TA Marcellin. I am biased because I generally like history, but this was a pretty awesome class. When it comes to the workload, this was a really light GE: there were no quizzes or exams except for weekly InQuizitives, which allow you to answer as many questions as you need to reach a target score. The weekly InQuizitives and lectures were based on the textbook "Give Me Liberty" by Eric Foner, which is available as an online edition. The only large assignments were a midterm paper and a final paper worth 20% and 30%, respectively. Discussion sections, when I took the course, had a weekly short response to write based on one of the week's primary sources. Content-wise, HIST 13B felt very much like whatever part of APUSH covers the 19th century, but magnified. Coming from an APUSH background, this was nice because I had a gist of what happened but the class was still interesting as it went into a lot more detail and nuance. The content is relatively progressive leaning, but I like how while it doesn't paint American history as innocent or perfect it also isn't afraid to praise the moral underpinnings of our country where they were apparent. I left the class feeling like a very nuanced picture was painted of 19th century American history, which is what you should feel IMO, rather than seeing one side of history. There were some guest lecturers sprinkled throughout the quarter who provided a lot of more niche but interesting topics, e.g. one lecture was devoted solely to talking about the Civil War through everyday artifacts, media, house items, etc that remain from the time. I had Marcellin as my TA and he was great. I like how in discussions he invited us to dig deeper into how different primary sources and how they connect. He was also helpful when I walked into office hours and asked for feedback on my final essay outline. Sorry for the long blurb. I tend to write a lot, but if anything, take that as an indication that this class was something really great and I would recommend it to anyone interested in a relatively easy but enriching GE. Very relevant to our current age
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