This class has several very dense required texts, but I would not let that deter you from taking it. Dr. Trojan is funny, engaging, knowledgable, and personable. Attending the lectures is a MUST for this class if you want to understand the material. He translates the dense and difficult texts into material that is easy to digest. This class made me think differently about politics and the world in general. Be prepared to write and attend class.

So this review is for 114B but I don't see an option to do that class. Regardless, I've talked to people who have taken 114A and it's literally the same class (same structure, grading scheme, etc.) with the only difference being the books you read.
tbh I was seriously considering dropping this class... I'm not a pol sci or humanities major, and I don't like reading so the reading was pretty overwhelming and people were telling me he grades the quizzes and essay hard. You have to read at least a full book every week, sometimes even two, which I was totally not used to. I'm so glad I stuck w/ it tho cuz it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I needed this class for a GE requirement right before I was about to graduate.
So someone here already posted the grading breakdown. For starters, the close reading assignment is very easy. You literally just take a passage from any book and produce a 1-2 page analyzation. He essentially gave everyone full credit for this assignment.
Now the quizzes are a bulk of your grade, and I would fully recommend coming to class because he gives you at least half the answers in lecture. And this is important b/c sometimes the texts aren't obvious and require a certain interpretation, so it's nice for him to give you those interpretations in lecture. I went to practically every class, and while I merely skimmed thru all the books (except for the one I did my essay on), I still got a 100 on all the quizzes because of the lecture and study guides. All I would do is the day before class, I would use the study guides as a reference and skim thru chapters until I found a passage related to the study guide questions. Then I would memorize all of these. The quizzes are only two questions at most, but they're short essay style. After the first quiz or two, I kinda had a grasp of what types of questions he likes to ask. There wasn't a single question on the quizzes that wasn't on the study guide, so make sure you use it as a reference. Sometimes there are lots of questions on the study guide, but usually he picks the questions that cover the overarching topics of the book. And like I said, they're always gonna be short essay style so focus on the ones that cover big concepts rather than just small facts. If you do this you can easily get a good grade on the quizzes. Also, he drops one quiz so you get one freebee.
Now for the peer review, I felt like he graded it harder than the close reading. Everyone I talked to got full credit on the close reading, but I came across a good # of students who didn't get full credit on the peer review. Although it's only worth 10%, it's important that you maximize your points on everything up until the essay because the essay is worth half of your grade and he's known to be a relatively tough grader. So make sure you actually spend time on the peer review and analyze your peer's essay to a deep level.
Now the big boy- the essay. I spent a lot of time on this, and it showed cuz I got a pretty good grade on it. MAKE SURE you get your argument checked out by him before you work on it. He has OH after every class and he is very good with making sure he spends time w/ everybody. Once it gets to week 9, it's gonna get crammed w/ literally everybody there so you may wanna get it checked out before then. It's absolutely imperative that you get his okay on the argument b/c it's the biggest portion of your paper. And it may be sort of confusing on what he expects, I know I was confused and overwhelmed in the beginning, cuz basically he wants you to make sort of a controversial interpretation of the reading, and then spend 10-15 pages proving that interpretation. You wanna go to OH and get his verification cuz he'll give you tips, and if you know your argument is good, that's almost half the battle right there. Also he doesn't like emailing about specific questions about the essay b/c he reserves a lot of time in OH for that (which is understandable), so you wanna make sure you use OH to your advantage... don't expect to just be able to email him about it like you may have done for other classes
Overall, this was a good class and I learned a lot from it. I would take it w/ him if you're a pol sci major and this is a major requirement, but if you're someone like me who just needed a GE req it may be better for you to go w/ an easier class. This class was far from an easy A and required a lot of work, but Trojan is a great, helpful professor

Before taking his PS 114A class, I was a little nervous after seeing some negative reviews about him on BruinWalk, but he's actually an outstanding professor. I came away from this class with a lot of knowledge, and Professor Trojan really helped facilitate that. The workload can be pretty heavy depending on the week, so make sure you set aside some extra time for this class to get the work done. The final is a term paper, and he's great about helping students come up with topics and write great papers. Overall, this class is really rewarding, and I would definitely recommend this class to anyone who wants to learn more about early American authors.

A horrible class definitely do not recommend taking! He just strays from the subjects and then the time flies by and its just frustrating plus he is a hard grader and does not allow tardy work

The best professor I have ever had in my three years at UCLA. Very knowledgeable with the subject, is very helpful in mastering the coursework, flexible and understanding, adds humor to the class, workload is perfect and assigned weekly, not overwhelming and reinforces the knowledge being learned that given week. Overall a great professor, would recommend to anyone looking for an awesome class/professor to have.

Dr. Trojan is one of the best professors I have ever had. Every class, he brings the texts to life, and you can really tell how passionate he is about political theory, literature, and political science in general. He's also extremely helpful and cares a lot about his students' success and understanding. If you enjoy political theory, you will enjoy taking a class by him!

He just rambles on for ages and then doesn't actually explain anything relevant. He's a great guy but just isn't all there, so I changed to P/NP in the week 9, because term paper is 50% of grade!!!!

I LOVED THIS CLASS. The readings were a bit tedious, and they took time, but Professor Trojan was exciting and really engaged with our ideas. One of the first Political Science classes where I felt like I was actually being listened to. The final paper was long, but there's a lot of flexibility in terms of the prompt/readings you choose to use. I struggled with the writing initially, but Professor T held extra office hours and met with me multiple times to review the paper and talk through it. If you like political theory, I would recommend at least one class with Professor T!

Trojan is goated at UCLA. He's one of the most funny and engaging lecturers I have ever had. He manages to cover topics in an interesting and clever way that makes you think differently than you might have before. This class was a really interesting deep dive into some of our founding documents that your previous American government classes probably didn't cover. The class itself was graded on Perusall annotations and two "Interventions," which are basically like mini essays. Definitely take this class if you want an easy A with a light workload, but also want to learn something and engage with the subject matter.

Avoid this professor!! Moves too fast, doesn't post slides, doesn't record lecture, and explains things to you as if you are a law or graduate student. I only took this class because it was the last open class in the political science department. AVOID THIS PROFESSOR!!!!!!!!!