Honestly, take this class if you're interested in politics/democracy/political theory. You also lowkey don't have to do much of the readings... Duong goes over important quotes during the lecture. The content itself is super interesting. I didn't realize that political theory can be applicable to so much.

Also-- get Diego as a TA if you can. He's super friendly, cares a lot about his students, but also grades harshly on participation (not hard to get points because he gives a lot of opportunities). He also does a lot of good reviews for the exams.

Take this class!! You'll learn so much.

Interesting class. Duong was a great lecturer - he went through the material as if he was telling a story, which I found to be super engaging. The first half of the class centered around revolutions (American, French, and Haitian), and the second half looked at the 1800s and beyond (industrial revolution, romanticism, feminism, some international conflict, etc.). The lecture material was generally pretty easy to understand (it felt like a blend of AP Euro and AP US History). There was a midterm and a final, both of which were open note and textbook, that felt easy, but were graded harshly. There was no homework except for weekly readings that were, in my opinion, way too much for an intro class. They were very dense, and many of them were pretty long and tedious to work through. Honestly, you could probably get by without doing the readings, as Duong covered the main points from the readings (that were worth mentioning on the exam) in lecture. There was also a discussion section, that was usually a waste of time. The TA would go over the readings, which was helpful, and then we would discuss them in small groups, then have a whole-class discussion of the readings. Discussions usually turned into nitpicking details from the readings and complex discussion of dilemmas with certain theories, which were both hard to follow along with (unless you really thoroughly went through the readings ahead of time, which, with a full class schedule and other homework, was unfeasible) and were never brought up on exams, which is why I say discussion was generally a waste of time. While I found the class material interesting, overall, I don't really think this class was worth taking, due to the extensive readings and harsh grading, especially since this didn't count as a requirement for my major.

Loved this course! I learned so much about political theory. The content was super interesting as the course was themed around the topic of revolutions, and the instructor was great. There was a decent amount of reading each week (especially for a 1000-level course), but they were always pretty short and interesting. The exams were also a little tough, but if you do the readings and try in the class you should end up with about an A-. I highly recommend!

This course is a LOT for an intro course, with dense and long readings this class will take up a lot of your time. The exams are open-note, which is a plus, but I would say that the TAs and Professor grade harshly which balance out the open-note-ness of the exams. The first half of the semester goes up to the "Age of Revolutions" (American, French, and Haitian), and the second half of the semester covers ~1800s. For lectures, Professor Duong lectures exactly from his notes---but it's more like he's giving a speech or telling a story. The class is also completely electronic-free, as in, all the textbooks must be physical and all your notes as well. I would recommend taking your discussion section on the same day as lecture, so you're not carrying around pounds and pounds of materials every day. On the note of discussion, I don't think it was THAT productive. We go through a summary of the thinkers and what they believe, and then have discussion about it. Even though it's another 50 minutes, I don't think I ever came out of discussion with a better understanding of the content than when I came in. Overall, unless you're incredibly interested in political theory, you're probably taking this to fulfill the Politics major requirement and for that it's probably your best bet on the PLIR track---but it won't be fun (in my opinion).

Really liked this course and especially the professor! He made it really engaging and tried to make sure we had readings from diverse sources, but there were a lot of readings and they did take up a fair amount of time. Tests were open note so it wasn't too bad. I think it was fairly good as an intro course.