I loved Professor Dubois!!!! You could tell that she genuinely loves history. Her lectures were engaging. I'm a STEM major but always looked forward to going to her class. The workload is very reasonable and her exams were fair. She is only teaching one more quarter in the fall of 2017 before retirement . I felt a need to write this review to praise this wonderful professor and overall amazing human being. I'm thankful to have taken her class.

Her powerpoints are useless because they're all pictures without any captions. Her lectures are interesting if you actually like 19th century US History (which btw I do). Otherwise, you might think they may be a bit dry. She's going to ask "Does anyone have any questions?" in lecture. Please, don't ask questions. We had one of those "smart aleck" guys in class and man for 2 lectures it was just a personal conversation between those two. If I had known they were going to be talking about "how fascinating Reconstruction is," I wouldn't have bothered showing up.

Anyways, the readings are very, very dry. And I even said I liked 19th century US History. Just get through them and wikipedia some of the main events so you have a better understanding about the novel you're reading. One of the toughest books to read in that class was about the California Gold Rush. You're going to have to write 2 papers. I strongly advise you to write a draft ahead of time and go to your TA for help. The papers are probably about 50% of your grade. The midterm is standard. Just IDs and essay.

As for the final, it's a total joke. Let me just tell you this, on my final we had 2 extra credit questions that was worth 5 points each (yeah 5 points). One question was "Name one topic you learned about in this class and explain why you liked it." Uhh yeah...that should pretty much answer how "easy" the class was. And as advised by the TA poster below me, do talk in your sections. It's worth a lot of your grade. I got a B+ on the midterm, A in section, As on the papers, and an A on the final. Overall an A in the class.

Ellen Dubois is quite possibly the greatest professor I've ever taken at UCLA. Her lectures are wonderfully structured and she's easy to listen to. I learned so much in her class in a way that I won't forget either. Her class is not a gimme, but if you pay attention (and it's so much fun to pay attention with her lecture style), you'll do well. She is fair, approachable and all around wonderful. I only wish I could take her again.

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.