I was originally a bit worried to take this course because i had never taken an upper div history course and prof Ford did not have many reviews; now that I have finished the class, I am SO glad that I did! I found the material to be quite interesting, even though I originally had very little knowledge/interest in France, I now feel like a mini expert in the field and have been able to talk about the topic with others which is really cool lol. The class is structured pretty easy with this grading scheme: 15% attendance/ participation, 40% take home midterm + in class ID Quiz(2 900 word papers), and 45% take home final (2 900 word papers again). The paper prompts were nice because we were given multiple prompts to choose from, so you could choose your paper topics on things that you had more notes on/ knew the material better. I stressed out a lot about the In class ID Quiz, but that really was not bad either as prof Ford included like 10 different topics that we could choose from to ID, so if you didn't know some things, you could just choose a different topic. The painting ID wasn't too tough either cuz the paintings were shown on a ton of slides and you did not have to provide much information. The papers in general were not very difficult either, it was a bit tough to stay under 900 words, and the Prof's citation policy is kinda weird, but honestly nothing too difficult. The one thing I will say for this class though: GO TO ALL THE LECTURES. Prof. Ford DOES NOT upload any bruincast or recordings of lectures, and the slides have minimal to no information on them, so if you want to do well on the papers, you absolutely must go to lecture( plus attendance is 15% so you kinda have to anyways lol). The professor is a very good lecturer, gives me the "classic history professor" vibes, ngl at times the lectures were a tad bit boring, but definitely manageable since theyre only 50 min. Overall definitely recommend the course, pretty easy A if you show up to the lectures and do a bit of research for the papers.

I really learned a lot in this class. Professor Ford is probably the most efficient and clear lecturer I've had. Honestly, just take constant notes when she talks and do some light reading and you'll be okay. She covers 90% of the test material in lecture. Only bad thing is both essays are in class so if you get test anxiety it may not be the best course to take.

Ford is one of the most direct History professors I've had at UCLA. The only way to get an A in the class is to go to the lectures, but if you go to the lectures you'll probably get an A.

Attendance is super important for this reason, but otherwise participation doesn't matter.

Ford doesn't pull any punches on the tests, she doesn't give a study guide but she pretty much tells you the essay themes ahead of time. One midterm, one final-- both in class essays.
She's very informative and kind. No drama class where I learned a lot. Would recommend.

Her lectures are very informative and she is very clear with the material. If you take a class with her, you will learn a lot at a good pace.