HIST 164E
Topics in African History: Africa, 1945 to Present
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Preparation: one prior course in African history at UCLA. Designed for juniors/seniors. History of Africa south of Sahara from end of World War II to present. Last phases of colonial rule in Africa, African nationalism, Pan-Africanism, liberation movements, and achievement of independence. Political, social, and economic change in colonies and in independent states of Africa. Neocolonialism, experiments in national development, apartheid in South Africa, ideological conflict in contemporary Africa, and Africa in world affairs since 1957. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
Most Helpful Review
I took History 164E and IDS 100A with Apter. DO NOT TAKE ANY CLASS WITH HIM. Not only is he actually a terrible lecture but he is also a horribly rude person. His lectures are all over the place, no powerpoint, no real theme to take notes on. He goes off on side tangents about his "research" in Nigeria or about how much he hates republicans. He criticizes international development like it is a joke (clearly to the wrong audience, we are all IDS majors...); and hates on international aid but does not offer any alternatives - if you look up the "research" he has done in his career you will see this. He can't even draw a supply and demand curve (anyone who took this class in Winter of 2015 will tell you that), the most basic principle of economics! That is completely ridiculous and there is no excuse why he should have such a lack of knowledge. And then, of course, he pretends that he knows so much more about economics than we do, and attempts to use fancy words in order to make himself feel smarter than us. He also has this really annoying habit of yelling at people who walk in right AT 9:30 or even at 9:31, because this class is "the most important one you will ever take and you are being disrespectful by being late". Well i'd like to see his fat a** walk from Veteran to Public Affairs and see if he got there on time. I learned absolutely nothing of value in this class, and if you have the opportunity to take either of these classes with a different professor, DO IT. His History 16E class was no better (taken Spring 2014). The best part of that class was I enjoyed one of the textbooks he assigned, but that was it. (learned more from the textbook than I did in lecture - the book is called The Fate of Africa). Overall he is the worst professor i've ever had at UCLA, and I started off as a south campus major taking classes from Lavelle and Dearicott, which is saying something.
I took History 164E and IDS 100A with Apter. DO NOT TAKE ANY CLASS WITH HIM. Not only is he actually a terrible lecture but he is also a horribly rude person. His lectures are all over the place, no powerpoint, no real theme to take notes on. He goes off on side tangents about his "research" in Nigeria or about how much he hates republicans. He criticizes international development like it is a joke (clearly to the wrong audience, we are all IDS majors...); and hates on international aid but does not offer any alternatives - if you look up the "research" he has done in his career you will see this. He can't even draw a supply and demand curve (anyone who took this class in Winter of 2015 will tell you that), the most basic principle of economics! That is completely ridiculous and there is no excuse why he should have such a lack of knowledge. And then, of course, he pretends that he knows so much more about economics than we do, and attempts to use fancy words in order to make himself feel smarter than us. He also has this really annoying habit of yelling at people who walk in right AT 9:30 or even at 9:31, because this class is "the most important one you will ever take and you are being disrespectful by being late". Well i'd like to see his fat a** walk from Veteran to Public Affairs and see if he got there on time. I learned absolutely nothing of value in this class, and if you have the opportunity to take either of these classes with a different professor, DO IT. His History 16E class was no better (taken Spring 2014). The best part of that class was I enjoyed one of the textbooks he assigned, but that was it. (learned more from the textbook than I did in lecture - the book is called The Fate of Africa). Overall he is the worst professor i've ever had at UCLA, and I started off as a south campus major taking classes from Lavelle and Dearicott, which is saying something.