If you pay attention in lecture and skim the readings and you should do fine. Her office hours are really helpful and she is always willing to clarify, even for tests and the essay. Take advantage of office hours!
Fell asleep in every lecture. Very boring and hard to follow. She had us do assigned seating in Campbell hall, which was annoying. Lots of reading. She is good about asking if anyone has questions though.
Professor Digeser pulls you into the subject and really challenges you to decide for yourself what you believe. We read Polybius which was tough, but she was always open to discussing during office hours or through emails (replies promptly) anything that hadn't made sense in lecture. She cares not only about her subject but also her students.
Awesome professor. Knows what she's talking about. LOVED the class.
Lectures are completely disorganized and half the time she doesn't even know whats going on. Documents that come with the class are completely irrelevant. I'm a history major but I hated this class.
She definitely wasn't my favorite professor. The class is very loosely structured, and you don't learn as much about history as you do about how to study it as a historian- only take it if you're EXTREMELY interested. Says "uh", "um" every two seconds, talks about irrelevant things.. boring.
This class grows on you but lectures are really boring. The teacher is admittedly monotonous and rather reads aloud her lectures like essays some days. Dont bother with section readings but u need to read everything else but spark-notes Hobbes &Thoreau is way better Just don't be stupid and plagiarize. Overall good class
Do.Not.Take.PS188. WAYYYYYYYYYYY too much reading (and tedious reading, at that!) Far too much to absorb. Prof and TAs then go over a couple sections of the hundreds of pages of reading and hope that'll suffice. It doesn't. The grading is ridiculous; every student was extremely pissed off about his/her paper and test scores
First off, i'd like to say Prof Digeser is a really cool person. The class though was monotone. I think its hard to make political philosophy interesting but still, every time went to class (which was always) I would just zone out and copy her notes. And as for her tests, expect to study, a lot. She takes her job seriously and so will you.
Digeser's class is kind of intimidating but really interesting. There's quite a bit of reading but it's all relevant and interesting. Be careful on the image ID's on the final, shes uses really obscure images from the powerpoints. The essays aren't graded too hard if you get a good T.A. Take notes on the reading, study and you should be fine.
Do not buy the book, it is a waste of $80! If you attend lecture you have all the info you need. The midterm and final are really hard and are all essay. In order to do well on them you MUST pay attention to the themes of tge class she talks about in lecture. Also pay lots of attention to the section readings!
i strongly suggest you do not buy the book. one- not relevant to the essays and exams you need to take and 2. it is a waste of time. Better to study your notes than read the book as well as study your documents! especially if you have a hard TA. my TA was a B**** and graded extremely hard and didn't enjoy being around her students. if you love hist
Textbook is useless. She tells you everything you need to know in lecture, just memorize it and repeat it on the midterm and final. She just wants you to write about her ideas.
I went to every lecture.. Waste of life. Here's what my TA even told me, "This class is for people who absolutely love history-read history everyday, and are always watching the history channel." Don't take this class. Dude. Seriously.
EXAMS AND PAPERS REALLY HARDLY GRADED
Do not take this teacher! I loved history but she makes this subject very boring and hard to follow since she talks about meaningless information and seems to skip the important and interesting stuff. She talked about rome without mentioning the colluseum. Bad teacher, tough class, read a LOT of documents textbook and they don't even help for test
Lame. Very lame teacher with very lame TAs on a very lame subject. Do not take.
Interesting topics. WAY WAY WAY to much reading assigned. Midterm very difficult and composed of the most random questions. It's one of those classes taught like its the only class you have that quarter.
She provides very good information over topics that are somewhat interesting, however the class is based on the assigned readings more than anything. You must know every detail and be able to distinguish between 30-40 sources for the tests that are essay only. NOT an easy class!
Unless you're a history major just do the pass/no pass route. A very hard class with brainwashed TAs, and impossible tests. Despite the fact the subject matter is actually interesting, avoid this class.
This is honestly the worst teacher I've ever had the displeasure of having at UCSB. I USED to be a history major until i took this class, the operative phrase being "used to be"...i am now looking for a new major...Poli Sci here i come!
She makes you know EVERYTHING in the class for tests and you have to do ALL of the readings. Dont buy the textbook its a waste of money. Attendance is mandatory, she gives random pop quizzes and the paper is long and you can only use the reader as a source. Avoid her
she knows her stuff and is obviously interested in what shes teaching but the tests are extremely hard and there is pop quizzes in lecture so you have to go and pay attention. the textbook is useless, dont read it, you have to read the reader though, all questions come from it. lots of homework reading and studying. dont take if not a history major
worst teacher. hard to follow, if you miss class--the notes online does not help at all. ex: one slide showed a picture of a building with no explanation. a lot of the slides are like that. do not take this teacher.
