I took this class through Zoom and he altered the class to be as convenient as possible due to COVID restrictions. Our grade was based on two small papers, final paper, and participation credit in discussions. I really enjoyed going to discussions as we went over primary sources that we would end up using as evidence in our papers. My TA, Rebekka, was very kind and understanding. She was very considerate of the students who had a hard time speaking up in class so she gave writing assingments and such. She helped us by reviewing our drafts and also advising them. Dr. Meranze gave awesome lectures. His voice is monotone so you may zone out here and there, but he is very passionate about the topic and is always willing to help you and answer your questions. I went to his office hour and he was so nice and considerate of my questions and concerns. He also took his time answering my emails as he explained and answered my question very thoroughly. I would recommend for a STEM major who is trying to fulfill a GE on top of their rigorous science courses.

This class was pretty good and, as someone who enjoys historical writing, I felt like this class was right up my alley. The workload wasn't too much and most of my time spent for this class was going to my TA to discuss my paper when I knew the paper was going to be due soon. Professor Meranze was very knowledgable about this period in history and extremely nice during his office hours; however, I, personally, didn't find his lecture style very engaging for me. If you want a class that is very straightforward and not too difficult that fulfills diversity and a history GE, this is it.

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Let me be blunt, I am an engineering student whose never taken American History before this class. History's not really my thing. During lectures I oscillated between being genuinely interested and really bored. If you knew all of this from APUSH, then you'll probably be bored.

Okay, for the essays, make sure you get your TA to skim through it. My TA, though a hardass while grading, was very nice. He gave great feedback which was probably responsible for my good grade.

There is plenty of reading, reading Foner, the textbook, though not strictly necessary for discussion helped me out a lot. It gave me the background for giving input during the discussions. Just talk during discussions to get a good participation grade.

Read Foner before the midterms. Midterms require you to showcase your knowledge, rather than you argumentative abilities.

Getting an A is 100% possible, you just need to put a little work into it.

basic apush stuff.
grading is all done by the TA.
2 papers, midterm, and a final.
TAs look for specific things in the final, so if you want an A in the class, go to their office hours and have them look over.
i got 95 on midterm and final but got a B- & B+ for the paper and ended up with the B+. yea papers matter.

You need at least 93.5% to get a solid A for this class. No curve, extra credit, or anything similar to save your grade, and one single mistake can ruin your whole paper and/or exam essay. Enough said.

Meranze really does care. His lectures are extremely boring and I found it difficult to stay awake sometimes though. I did not choose this class, I just got thrown into it at orientation because I needed a third class and ironically it was the only class I got an A in this quarter. I think Meranze does a good job explaining things in a way that is easy to understand for people just coming out of high school. I went to his office hours a couple of times and he expressed genuine concern that I understand his answers to my questions. I also had an awesome TA, which helped a great deal. This discussion was definitely my favorite academic part of the quarter.
Your grade consists of two papers (20% each), the final (30%), and participation (30%). If you go to all your discussions and put in the effort for the TA, you will get full participation points. I didn't think the papers were too difficult, there is just a lot of reading. The final was really easy but I was kind of annoyed that I could have taken that final without studying at all- it was completely information I learned in APUSH (Glorious Revolution, Great Awakening, Pontiac's Rebellion, the development of slavery, etc). I probably could have gotten an A without doing any of the reading out of the Give Me Liberty textbook.

Overall, I think this is a good class to take if you're looking for a relatively simple GE. I wouldn't say it's the easiest class, but the reality is none of the GEs here are going to be easy and classes will always be more difficult if you aren't interested in the subject matter.

Meranze is an interesting professor-- he obviously has much knowledge about the colonial era, but lectures in a peculiar way, almost as if the audience is made up of middle schoolers. Nevertheless, I enjoyed his powerpoints and format of presenting information; be sure to listen to what he says rather than simply reading his bullet points to understand what he really means about each topic. I agree with the other reviewers that the books he assigns don't coincide much with his lectures, but he probably does this on purpose, and I didn't particularly mind it. Overall, a history course of average difficulty. I studied a good amount and came away with an A, so it's definitely possible.

I have mixed feelings about this class, mainly because of the two essays we had to write in the class, both of which were EXTREMELY time consuming. Seriously. The first essay was a historiography paper where we read 4 historian's perspectives on the origins of slavery and had to write an essay comparing and contrasting them. The second essay was an argumentative essay about another book we had to read. Each essay corresponded to a book, so needless to say, there was a lot of reading for this class. The problem I had with the essays is that the prompts were sooooo long-winded and general, you didn't really know what he was asking. Professor Meranze even acknowledges their general nature, but claims he does that on purpose so students can have a broader range of answers. However, they were SO general to the point where you really had no idea what he was asking you to write! Even after speaking to my TA I was still confused. That really bothered me.

However, because the material itself is so familiar to students (APUSH, anyone?) that the final wasn't that difficult because it was geared more towards the American Revolution and less on the 17th and 16th centuries. He lectures in such a monotonous voice, but he really has great insight into the subject. If you focused on his words and not the way he speaks, he has some interesting analyses of the material, so I enjoyed that aspect. In hindsight, I wish there was a midterm to ease the burden of the papers, but since 30% of your grade is attendance and participation in section, I think that is enough cusion for a G.E.! That's a great grade booster. All in all, this is pretty much what I expected from this class as a G.E., but it was kind of heavy on the reading side. We even had a full book to read in Week 10 and it was a waste of time! Totally pointless as it was in no way represented on the final. That really bothered me.

I thought that this was a fairly easy GE. Professor Meranze was a good lecturer, but I felt that the assigned books were very dull. I agree with the previous review that the books never coincided with Meranze's lectures. The midterm and final were very fair and the paper was easy because the possible topics were talked a lot about in discussions.