HIST 168B
History of Southern Africa since 1870
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Attention to social and economic as well as political aspects. Interactions between inhabitants of southern Africa since 1870. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
1 of 1
Most Helpful Review
This class had some pros and cons, but overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to my fellow history students. Professor Worger is hilarious and his lectures are basically a conversation with the class which I find to be more interesting and easy to follow. Unlike many history professors I've had here, Worger doesn't "dump" a large amount of information on you and except you to mindlessly memorize it. His class is centered on main ideas and I feel like I've learned what was important about the apartheid era. Worger's laid back attitude worked great for lecture, but I think the structure of the class was a little too relaxed at times. The readings he assigned were amazing, most were novels plus an easy to read textbook that he wrote. However, half the time, most of the class did not know what we were supposed to be reading when since there's no assigned page numbers on the syllabus. In addition, we didn't have due dates/topics of papers weren't given to us until a couple weeks in advance. The work load wasn't too bad, grades were based on an in-class midterm, two papers and a take-home final. Worger gave a study guide for the midterm in advance and allowed it to be open book, which was really generous of him. One of the papers was about a current event and another more involved class material and was due a couple weeks after the midterm. The take-home final was three two page essays which were not too hard to write. Final verdict: Take the class! It's a fascinating topic and Worger is just the right professor to teach it.
This class had some pros and cons, but overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to my fellow history students. Professor Worger is hilarious and his lectures are basically a conversation with the class which I find to be more interesting and easy to follow. Unlike many history professors I've had here, Worger doesn't "dump" a large amount of information on you and except you to mindlessly memorize it. His class is centered on main ideas and I feel like I've learned what was important about the apartheid era. Worger's laid back attitude worked great for lecture, but I think the structure of the class was a little too relaxed at times. The readings he assigned were amazing, most were novels plus an easy to read textbook that he wrote. However, half the time, most of the class did not know what we were supposed to be reading when since there's no assigned page numbers on the syllabus. In addition, we didn't have due dates/topics of papers weren't given to us until a couple weeks in advance. The work load wasn't too bad, grades were based on an in-class midterm, two papers and a take-home final. Worger gave a study guide for the midterm in advance and allowed it to be open book, which was really generous of him. One of the papers was about a current event and another more involved class material and was due a couple weeks after the midterm. The take-home final was three two page essays which were not too hard to write. Final verdict: Take the class! It's a fascinating topic and Worger is just the right professor to teach it.
1 of 1
