American President Biography

Douglas and Dickinson are an electric duo. They run the class together really well, however it's just not worth the amount of reading. The papers are often and theres ZERO little wiggle room on deadlines or prior help. The discussions are relaxed and more of just a summary making sure the class got the more important parts of each reading. They are a fun duo, showing youtube videos, anecdotes and talking a lot. If you have interest in politics, take this, as they love to talk about any questions and discussion is usually best when it strays away from the readings, which the two are totally fine with. Overall not a valuable course, but if you are interested in politics, take it as these two are super knowledgeable about hands-on experience and the political science aspect. Dickinson is a tougher grader.

Douglas and Dickinson are an electric duo. They run the class together really well, however it's just not worth the amount of reading. The papers are often and theres ZERO little wiggle room on deadlines or prior help. The discussions are relaxed and more of just a summary making sure the class got the more important parts of each re …Read more

The two professors are really passionate about politics and political science and they give really good insights about American political history and about current events. It was especially interesting to take the class with them in an election year. The discussions are pretty relaxed and the harder part of the class is writing the papers. There are only four but they are on the longer side and take time to think about. Overall its not too time consuming on average and is pretty interesting. You also learn a lot of recent political history.

The two professors are really passionate about politics and political science and they give really good insights about American political history and about current events. It was especially interesting to take the class with them in an election year. The discussions are pretty relaxed and the harder part of the class is writing the p …Read more

Professor Dickinson's long lectures were somewhat helpful for understanding the material, but also tended to quickly become boring or go on long, unhelpful tangents. The readings are basically all of the class, and every week has hours worth of them to read. He did seem genuinely interested in the material he was teaching. Papers would not be accepted after the deadline without prior approval, and even with prior approval your grade would be dropped each day it was late. He also refused to proofread papers and often returned grades papers far too late for you to use his feedback for the next paper. Professor Dickinson also made several comments and jokes that seemed racially insensitive, such as repeatedly referring to Black people as "the blacks".

Professor Dickinson's long lectures were somewhat helpful for understanding the material, but also tended to quickly become boring or go on long, unhelpful tangents. The readings are basically all of the class, and every week has hours worth of them to read. He did seem genuinely interested in the material he was teaching. Papers wou …Read more

Professor Dickinson and Governor Douglas are amazing professors who are very knowledgeable about each president covered. Hence, they often create interesting and relaxed discussions with their insights into the presidents. Although the discussions are primarily centered around the readings, as others have said, they often go off in other directions (especially during a presidential election) that captivate people's attention despite the long class. The readings, although not challenging, are often long but are interesting as well. Four 5-7 page papers are to be written which can be time consuming in having to go back through previous readings to find evidence. In all, it is a solid class that I would recommend if you are okay with reading often and are interested in learning about presidents.

Professor Dickinson and Governor Douglas are amazing professors who are very knowledgeable about each president covered. Hence, they often create interesting and relaxed discussions with their insights into the presidents. Although the discussions are primarily centered around the readings, as others have said, they often go off in o …Read more

Dickinson and Douglas make this seminar very engaging and interesting. Their personal experiences within politics provide really cool insight into the autobiographies we read. Lots of reading, and 4 long papers in this course.

As the other reviews say, the course is solely discussion within the class. Professor Dickinson and Governor Douglas have great chemistry and they facilitate the conversations really well. Only issue was a it's too easy for people to not engage and leave the conversations dominated by a few students

Cool dynamic between Prof Dickinson and Gov Douglas. Very discussion based. There are weekely readings and four papers. They are accessible and the discussions are engaging and relivent to current topics along with the readings

It is a great discussion based class with great teachers. Meets once a week for 3 hours. Assigns lots of reading and has a lot of essays but there are no tests or exams. Lots of great discussions on the readings and on current world topics.

It is really fun having both the professor and the governor teaching the class. The classes are long but the discussions are super helpful and the readings are manageable especially when following the discussion questions.