HIST 21
World History, circa 600 to 1760
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Outline of world history from rise of Islam to start of Industrial Revolution, structured around a broad chronological narrative of salient developments. Use of thematic and comparative approaches, with certain recurring themes and institutions that modulate from culture to culture. Reading of variety of contemporary accounts to look at way people perceived cultures outside their own. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - WARNING: does not record lectures, does not post slides, and takes attendance by roll call. It is basic world history topics with a main focus on the middle east. The class is broken up into a 4 page book review (HAVE to read a book) and write about it, 5 reaction papers that were originally graded on quality but then got switched to completion, and the final which consisted of 2 3-page essays. The professor is super nice but has old-ish rules/tendencies with how he runs the class. Nice because there are no tests and not that many essays but you have to go to class and your engagement likely impacts your grade. Expect 100+ pages of reading a week from books and articles.
Winter 2024 - WARNING: does not record lectures, does not post slides, and takes attendance by roll call. It is basic world history topics with a main focus on the middle east. The class is broken up into a 4 page book review (HAVE to read a book) and write about it, 5 reaction papers that were originally graded on quality but then got switched to completion, and the final which consisted of 2 3-page essays. The professor is super nice but has old-ish rules/tendencies with how he runs the class. Nice because there are no tests and not that many essays but you have to go to class and your engagement likely impacts your grade. Expect 100+ pages of reading a week from books and articles.
AD
Most Helpful Review
GE Cluster 21A Prof. Hunt is a great instructor! She is incredibly smart and enjoys talking with students every day about anything and everything. She likes getting to know students and like helping them with questions and concerns they have. Her lectures are well thought out and very good. She has a lot of knowledge and knows what she is talking about when she lectures. She is also very funny and helps keep the lectures fun. She is a great duo with Prof. Jacobs and I definitely recommend the GE Cluster with her. As long as you're keeping up with the reading and understanding the main ideas that go with each philosopher, you'll do fine in this class.
GE Cluster 21A Prof. Hunt is a great instructor! She is incredibly smart and enjoys talking with students every day about anything and everything. She likes getting to know students and like helping them with questions and concerns they have. Her lectures are well thought out and very good. She has a lot of knowledge and knows what she is talking about when she lectures. She is also very funny and helps keep the lectures fun. She is a great duo with Prof. Jacobs and I definitely recommend the GE Cluster with her. As long as you're keeping up with the reading and understanding the main ideas that go with each philosopher, you'll do fine in this class.
Most Helpful Review
GE Cluster 21A Prof. Jacobs is incredible. She is incredibly nice and open and loves talking and engaging with students, both in and out of lecture. She is very, very smart and knows what she is talking about. Prof. Jacobs is not difficult. While the readings can be difficult, many times will Prof. Jacobs clarify all the confusion about it in lecture so that the philosophers are much easier to understand. She is a wonderful teacher to have with Prof. Hunt for the GE Cluster.
GE Cluster 21A Prof. Jacobs is incredible. She is incredibly nice and open and loves talking and engaging with students, both in and out of lecture. She is very, very smart and knows what she is talking about. Prof. Jacobs is not difficult. While the readings can be difficult, many times will Prof. Jacobs clarify all the confusion about it in lecture so that the philosophers are much easier to understand. She is a wonderful teacher to have with Prof. Hunt for the GE Cluster.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - I came into this class with the intention of completing a GE. Both the midterm (30%) and the final (40%) were take home and we had between 48-72 hours or so depending on the test to complete it. I honestly believe that without the idea of these tests being take-home, I would not have done as well as I did. Without COVID, I believe this would have been in-person which I don't think is the best as you have to write out an essay within that limited time without other resources. Like the previous review, I felt that the questions (especially for the midterm) pertained to things briefly covered in class rather than what I expected would be thematic questions. I took very good notes for this course and followed the readings so I was prepared with information, but someone who maybe didn't do this may have had a difficult time completing these. The grading wasn't exactly harsh, but I definitely think that it was hard to compile a bunch of information with the limited word count, at least in my case. For instance I was told I could probably elaborate more, but I didn't have the space to do so. I ended up doing well on the exams, however, but it definitely took some time for me to complete them. Along with these there were weekly writing assignments of 500 words based on primary sources that were 30% of our grade. They were fairly simple and you should be able to do well on them. Chase, the TA, was very nice and was willing to discuss questions which was helpful. Overall, the class wasn't my favorite as I don't exactly love history, but it was an interesting class. If you are looking for an easy GE, I don't think this is the one for you, but if you're willing to put in some work or find world history interesting, I think you'll enjoy it.
Winter 2022 - I came into this class with the intention of completing a GE. Both the midterm (30%) and the final (40%) were take home and we had between 48-72 hours or so depending on the test to complete it. I honestly believe that without the idea of these tests being take-home, I would not have done as well as I did. Without COVID, I believe this would have been in-person which I don't think is the best as you have to write out an essay within that limited time without other resources. Like the previous review, I felt that the questions (especially for the midterm) pertained to things briefly covered in class rather than what I expected would be thematic questions. I took very good notes for this course and followed the readings so I was prepared with information, but someone who maybe didn't do this may have had a difficult time completing these. The grading wasn't exactly harsh, but I definitely think that it was hard to compile a bunch of information with the limited word count, at least in my case. For instance I was told I could probably elaborate more, but I didn't have the space to do so. I ended up doing well on the exams, however, but it definitely took some time for me to complete them. Along with these there were weekly writing assignments of 500 words based on primary sources that were 30% of our grade. They were fairly simple and you should be able to do well on them. Chase, the TA, was very nice and was willing to discuss questions which was helpful. Overall, the class wasn't my favorite as I don't exactly love history, but it was an interesting class. If you are looking for an easy GE, I don't think this is the one for you, but if you're willing to put in some work or find world history interesting, I think you'll enjoy it.
Most Helpful Review
Von Glahn is an allright kind of guy. Of course you have to watch out for your TA because mine was a real nut. I thin that Von Glahn keeps it short and sweet in his lectures but tends to go off topic. Try to go to class because his slides are not the material he wants you to know they are just catalysts for conversation.
Von Glahn is an allright kind of guy. Of course you have to watch out for your TA because mine was a real nut. I thin that Von Glahn keeps it short and sweet in his lectures but tends to go off topic. Try to go to class because his slides are not the material he wants you to know they are just catalysts for conversation.