Phillips is one of the best professors I've had at UCLA.

He is not friendly. He discourages questions during during his lectures, is stern with his rules, and will not take kindly to attempts by students to act buddy-buddy. He purposefully exudes an aura of aloofness, but if you take one of his classes you will quickly realize that he has every right to do so.

That said, top tier professors are not obligated to be your friend. Phillips is quite obviously a master of his field; he effortlessly rails off ancient Greek quotes, and lays out Greek history in painstaking detail, mostly from the top of his head. If you do approach him with detailed questions during office hours or after class, he will undoubtedly have a straightforward answer. This is how UCLA professors should be.

As others have stated, his lectures are whirlwind affairs. I type upwards of 110 WPM, and I still have trouble keeping up on my off days. However, the lectures progress logically and are incredibly well put together. He shapes classes in the form of an outline, and he speaks in a clear, monotone voice that ensures you won't miss what he says. Despite speaking at a breakneck pace for fifty minutes at a time, almost every piece of information he gives is relevant--a welcome relief from the tendencies of most professors. His occasional forays into humor are dry but generally hilarious.

His style of history focuses on the wars and political intrigue of ancient Greece, a perspective that is all too rarely skipped these days in favor of "seeing through the eyes" of ancient civilizations. He touches on Greek culture when it is relevant, but you're not going to learn much about Socrates and Plato. This, in my opinion, is for the better.

The class is not particularly easy, but if you want an A you can get it. The upside of Phillips' courses is that his lectures are entirely parallel with the assigned books. I have received A's in both classes taken despite never dusting off the textbook. His study guides are hefty, and he expects you to remember large amounts of information (especially dates), but he gives you everything you need to succeed in lecture. Take good notes and give yourself three nights of moderate studying, and you will rock his tests. Despite his statements otherwise, he is not that hard of a grader.

I was not particularly interested in the Greeks pre-Phillips, but he makes Greek history into a very badass and interesting narrative. If you enjoy history, you should definitely take a Phillips course.

I was lucky enough to get him when lectures were recorded and posted on Canvas. The reviews are accurate, but if you figure out how to succeed in his class early on you can basically take him with a guaranteed A because he's predictable and stays consistent.

He gives you a study guide before the midterm and exam with a ton of ID's and essay questions, informing you that only a select few will be on the exams. I basically spent all weekend searching through my typed notes (important to spell every word correctly when taking notes because of this specifically) and prepping the terms from the study guide. There was absolutely no way I could have finished the midterm in 50 minutes without this, and many students didn't (getting to only the Id's and not the essay which was 50% of it).

If you just write down what he says, you'll be fine on the exams. It's just regurgitating as much as you can.

This just prepares you for the final, where you have 3 hours for the same amount of questions. I didn't use textbooks at all except for the essay, because he goes through everything in his lectures. It's difficult but I know students that prefer taking him because once you know how to succeed in his class, it's basically formulaic.

I took this course as a non-history major and found the material somewhat interesting. There are three exams: a map quiz (easy and only worth 10%), a midterm, and a final (non-cumulative). There is an essay which you will need the textbooks for, it makes writing much easier. He is tough grader, but he accommodates his grading scale of what % is equivalent to an A, B, C, etc based on this, which was fair. His lectures are somewhat dry as it is just him standing in front of a podium talking the entire class; however, he does try to incorporate jokes here and there. Take notes in class. The midterm and final are primarily terms that you have to know the definition of and your notes will help a lot. Essentially, if you can memorize dates and facts and regurgitate it on paper, this class is easy to pass.

Prepare to write or type till your hands hurt. You will be taking nonstop notes in his class. The map quiz is an easy A. For midterm and final he will give you a study guide. Get all the info you can on each term and on the exams just do an info dump on each question/essay. I earned an A- in the class even though I got a 78 on the term paper, but I did get an A on everything else. His dry humor will help, but this class is work.

You can get A's on the final and midterm and spend an inordinate amount of time on the paper and end up with a B in the class if your paper is not well-received. I studied like a maniac for this class (more than my other classes combined), and wrote what I believed was one of my best papers. I received my first B as to the several History courses I have taken. You may not regret taking the class, but given the professor's approach to grading, even if you put it the extraordinary effort that is required, it is likely that when you see your grade that your enthusiasm for the subject-area will be dampered.

Phillips is good and bad. Here's how he's good. He's great at weeding out all the half-wit inbreds and bimbos that somehow end up meeting various Quotas imposed by UCLA's admissions.
It's refreshing because Phillips' class serves as a reminder you're attending a top 15 world-ranked institution and you better earn that pride. His class is 50 minutes a session, which means he packs in the info. Bring a laptop, because you're going to need to record that info.
Some good news is that the readings he assigns from the main textbook he uses as his lecture. Herodotus is a required reading, but the text selections are thoughtful and not much to read through, you just have to keep up. The supplementary texts have various Greek quotes which are pretty epic and remind you of the movie 300, which is inspiring in itself.
Phillips is very hard. Thats the bad news. The class is very hardcore, but rewarding. If you are very familiar with the topic you will still be taken aback by this professor's demands of understanding the material.

Overall, a solid class but stay away if you are a useless, lazy, imbecile.

The review below me is very accurate. All I can add is if you don't like the subject material, don't take the course because Phillips really loves what he teaches and he will make sure you know the finer details of the material. He is very monotone when he lectures, but if you absorb the information and take notes you will be prepared for his tests.

Very dry lecturer, goes into depth with the material. Make sure to write down everything in class, when he gives study guides there are questions you would have only gotten if you paid attention in lecture. I suggest bringing a laptop for notes -- from the beggining to the end of the class you dont stop writing! Midterms are straighforward, you just have to know your stuff before hand. And he stresses specificity! He quoted in class, "If you just get the jist, Ill give you a C." He's also a hard grader. Readings are dry, though its not too much compared to most history courses. But again, dates, dates, dates and be specific.

Grading:
10% Map Quiz
30% Midterm
20% Paper
40% Final

Grade Scale:
93-100: A
90-92.99: A-
85-89.99: B+
80-84.99: B
75-79.99: B-
70-74.99: C+
65-69.99 C
60-64.99 C-

I had Phillips for Ancient Greek History (City-States). He's a great orator, well-spoken, concise, and organized. He lectures only on information pertinent to the course. Occasionally, he'll write a few terms on the board. Most of the time, he's standing there, talking. He's dry, sarcastic, witty (occasionally), and his voice is monotone. This makes it easy to write out lecture notes, though.

The most difficult part of the course was not so much conceptual as it was the sheer volume of the information presented. If you read a general overview of Ancient Greece since the Mycenaean/Minoan Ages until about 300 BC, you can get away with not doing the readings and simply, writing every single word in lecture. It's absolutely important that you take down everything he says because this man is anal about dates! You need dates in order to get all of the points on your IDs and essays. And the dates in ancient Greek history are disputed and inconsistent in the provided textbooks. Therefore, use the dates he presents in the course. Also, for many of the IDs, you can only find them in his lecture. Specific sayings such as "mono labe" or the story of Aristogeithon and his lover... are presented only in lecture.

We had class three times a week for 50 minutes. I wrote down everything and ended up with 5-5.5 single-spaced pages per lecture. I'm glad I did this because I was able to answer all of the IDs and essays with all of the information that he wanted (dates specifically). His grading scale is slightly different (see above). You must get an A on the map test. The midterm is very harshly graded so make sure you have ALL OF THE DATES (I cannot stress this enough). And the final exam... was graded quite leniently. He awards improvement too. If you increase your final exam score by more than 10 pts (or 10% like say from B to A) he'll give your overall grade a bump of 1/3 a grade. So, lets say you got an 85 on your midterm. You get a 95 on your final. Then, you'll get an overall 1/3 grade bump: e.g. to go from A- to A or B+ to A-.

Would I take him again? No.