HIST W3555

The workload for this class was very manageable. It's a history course, so there were about 100-150 pages of reading each week, which you had to read in advance of the weekly discussion section. There was one midterm, one easy 5-page paper, and a final for this course. For the tests, Professor Jacobs provides 4 essay questions ahead of time and picks 2 of them to be on the test, of which you choose 1 to write. There are also short answer ID questions. As mentioned above, the midterm and final do not require much studying. As long as you review your notes, pay attention in lecture (which isn't hard because Professor Jacobs is so engaging!), and have a good grasp of the main concepts, you'll do well in this class.

I absolutely loved this class and consistently looked forward to lectures. Professor Jacobs was always highly engaging and made the material both fascinating and accessible. She also really made an effort to get to know her students and their names, and would remember a student's name after only one interaction with them. It was clear that she really cares about her students and wanted to see us succeed. I learned a lot about this time period - the course covers the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II, with some lectures at the very beginning of the semester about the Roaring Twenties. Professor Jacobs clearly knows a lot about the material, and taught it both in depth and with clarity. One warning is that Professor Jacobs speaks fairly quickly and covers a lot of information, so you will be taking a lot of notes. But it is definitely manageable, and so so worth it. She also repeats the important information multiple times, so you will easily get a grasp of the main themes and concepts of the class. In terms of studying for the midterm and final in this class, you really only need to review your notes and make sure you understand the main concepts. As long as you pay attention in lecture and review your notes, you'll do very well in this class. I would 100% recommend this class to anyone even vaguely interested in history or economics. Professor Jacobs is an absol…

As mentioned above: Seminars involved about 100 to 150 pages of reading a week, a 15 page research paper, intermediate assignments for the research paper, weekly primary sources and analysis, and a five page "journal." The primary sources involved finding and analyzing a primary source related to the reading, and the "journal" was a five page summary at the end of the semester where you place them in a sort of narrative or reflective arc. She incorporates the primary sources into the discussion so there's a chance to participate every single time class meets. The intermediate assignments for the paper are ungraded but are meant to be for your benefit, as she gives notes and feedback based on them. Intermediate assignments include a paper proposal, revised paper proposal, preliminary bibliography of primary and secondary sources, an introduction and outline, a rough draft and then the final paper. Lecture was about 100 to 150 pages of reading a week, a five page essay and two exams (term IDs, passage IDs from the readings, and essays, the prompts for which she gives you in advance). Weekly discussion section that involved discussing the readings and incorporating them in with the material from lecture (my TA assigned no additional work). The five page essay involved analyzing a debate presented in class (e.g. the Lend-Lease Act) through newspaper research on ProQuest. A very ea…

Professor Jacobs is a wonderful professor. She's highly engaging and encourages students to engage with the material in a way that both sharpens our historical skills and encourages connections and analysis with other parts of history, especially our present. Her seminars were focused around helping us develop the skills and timeline needed to write a 15 page research paper. She takes this seriously. She will help you every step of the way and give structured assignments to take you through formulating a topic, researching and assembling a corpus of material, and finally writing. She gives feedback at every step and is willing to help you at her office hours constantly. This also ties into how the readings are structured to help you with your historical skills, particularly argumentation, as she'll mention frequently that your job in writing the research paper is to present an argument with evidence, just as the authors you read in class do. She ran the seminar incredibly well, incorporating our weekly work in with the readings, and often brought in cookies or other treats for class. Readings for Consumer Culture included two novels, a book on fast food, a book on Wal-Mart and a book about the baby boom. Readings for Nuclear Age included a book about the baby boom, detente, African American movements, the oil crisis, the Iran hostage crisis and the origins of environmentalism.…

Very manageable and enjoyable. Go to lecture, prep for exams (She gives the essay questions ahead of time), you can easily get an A.

A really great class. You will learn so much about the New Deal and World War II. This class covers many of the economic, social, and political developments during this time period (roughly 1932-1948). Professor Jacobs is a great lecturer. Instead of heavy secondary readings and boring primary sources like most classes, she just assigns four books the whole semester. One of them Stud Terkel's oral history of WW2 is one of the best books i've read in a long time. One easy paper, midterm, final.