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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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2026 - The class is okay at best. It's a really easy GE and definitely not hard to do well in. If you took APUSH, it's the exact same course content. The content Dr. Marino covers is somewhat interesting. It does lean pretty progressive if that interests you. However, she has a monotonous voice that will put you to sleep at 8am if you took it when I did. Her slides aren't helpful, as they are mostly just historical paintings and photographs. She brings in pretty interesting guest lecturers, which I appreciated, especially from other parts of the History department. The readings were okay, and the historical documents were interesting – that's basically what you do in Discussion section. For me, personally, if I wanted a more interesting class, I would not take this, but if I wanted an easy GE and GPA booster, I would take this class. Grading scale: 20% quizzes with unlimited attempts, 30% Discussion post, 20% in-person midterm, 30% in-person final. Midterm and final both include definitions, short paragraph responding to a historical document, and long essay response.
Winter 2026 - The class is okay at best. It's a really easy GE and definitely not hard to do well in. If you took APUSH, it's the exact same course content. The content Dr. Marino covers is somewhat interesting. It does lean pretty progressive if that interests you. However, she has a monotonous voice that will put you to sleep at 8am if you took it when I did. Her slides aren't helpful, as they are mostly just historical paintings and photographs. She brings in pretty interesting guest lecturers, which I appreciated, especially from other parts of the History department. The readings were okay, and the historical documents were interesting – that's basically what you do in Discussion section. For me, personally, if I wanted a more interesting class, I would not take this, but if I wanted an easy GE and GPA booster, I would take this class. Grading scale: 20% quizzes with unlimited attempts, 30% Discussion post, 20% in-person midterm, 30% in-person final. Midterm and final both include definitions, short paragraph responding to a historical document, and long essay response.
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