You don't really need the textbook, you just need to take notes on the slides, but the lectures are all recorded, so you can do that all asynchronously.

This was a pretty easy and straightforward class. An essay (500-700 words) each week over the lecture material. The professor seems to have a genuine interest in the content and is a decent lecturer. Would definitely take to satisfy the GE requirement.

I took this class for a GE and overall it was very very easy. There were no exams and all we had to do each week was write a long response answer to a prompt every week with 500-700 words. They weren't essays and the prompts were always very straightforward (basically just summarize that weeks lectures) and only took a few hours to complete give or take depending on how fast you write.

That being said, your grade/experience in this class depends entirely on the TA you have. My TA, Victoria, was amazing and every week our discussion sections were basically summing up the main points of that weeks lectures. She gave us a blank note sheet/diagram to fill out as we went over each point and then on top of that at the end of every discussion she gave us the same exact note sheet with all the notes pre-typed just in case we missed anything while writing...which we never did because it was all written on the board. This meant that I never had to attend lecture and I would just write my responses based purely off the notes from discussion and I pretty much always got 94+ on the writing assignments. However I know some of the other TAs graded harder and people were still able to get A's they just had to work a little more for it. Also, even if you score bad on an assignment you can rewrite it so overall very very low stress class and highly recommend to anyone.

If you are contemplating taking this class with Duthie let me put it short for you TAKE THIS CLASS.
As an incoming STEM freshman having no clue what they are doing and having absolutely zero writing skills, this class was the only thing keeping my GPA and my sanity together. If this class was in person I would have made sure to buckle up on the drive to school and use my turn signals all the time.
Homework wise the class only has a weekly 500-700 word essay based on the content of the week. Personally I never once opened the textbook, the class lectures and slides proved sufficient. But i will strongly advise that you attend the discussion where the TAs will give you practically an outline of how to write your essays. With this if you at least give yourself two hours and some knowledge of the topic you can get a A on every essay.
Most important part, NO MIDTERM AND FINAL. Instead of tests the Professor uses these weeks to allow for revision and regrading of the weekly essays.
If I had to take any class at ucla ever again it most definitely will be this one hands down. Shout out to TA Yueying.

Great GE especially if you're interested in Japanese history! Super interesting. Even if you're not interested in Japanese history, still one of the easiest GE I took. No midterm, no final, just an essay every week that you can rewrite for better grades.

The professor’s lectures were really engaging, you can tell that he enjoys teaching. I wish we could’ve gone deeper into the material, but there just wasn’t enough time to do so. I had TA Suong and she was the best, super nice, encouraged participation in a way that didn’t make things awkward, and very understanding about everything going on. Definitely recommend this class, it’s super easy and fun.

This class is an easy and interesting GE!
Professor Duthie is GOAT. I don't know how his class will be like during normal time, but during covid time, we only have 10 weekly assignments to write about the topic discussed in that week. No quiz or exam. We can also revise the assignments and resubmit. TA's discussions are really helpful, since your TA grades your assignment. TA goes over the topic and explains how to write the assignment for each week. Since I got other tough classes, this class literally saves my life. I didn't have time to read the textbook and just watched recorded lectures and attended discussions, but this didn't affect the grade of my assignments at all. So if no time to go over the textbook, lecture + discussion is enough.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS GE. It may not be the class with the least workload since you're expected to submit a response to a prompt about the week's lectures every week (10 assignments total). However, you can resubmit all of them for a better grade so it's not that stressful or intimidating once you get used to it. Professor Duthie is an incredibly amazing lecturer and well-versed in Japanese history. He was also really considerate of the circumstances and he and the TAs offered late submissions with no penalties as long as you let them know. Overall, it has been one of the most interesting history GEs I've taken. The only downside I could see from this is that going to lecture is necessary to get an A so you really do have to go (sections are optional though).

I also recommend taking the course with TA Suong, she grades within a day of the deadline with feedback and is super lenient. Her sections also basically tell you what to write about and her notes are really helpful and detailed.

I am selling the textbook for $10, contact me @ **********.

Torquil was a great professor and I enjoyed watching his presentations and reading the selected text. The TA I got, on the other hand, was super strict with grading and because of that, I ended up getting a B in the class despite understanding all of the course material. Simply writing over the word count was enough to ding points off my paper even though it added to the quality.

I had an extremely good experience in this class. Professor Duthie was a good lecturer and made the material very interesting and easy to understand. I also had an awesome TA, who broke down the weekly assignments very well. There were 10 assignments in this class and they were all the same format. I actually mostly struggled with going over the word count. Overall though, I enjoyed this class and would take it again, as well as recommend it to anyone else. I took this as a GE via zoom.