HIST142 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Saverio Giovacchini HIST142 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/19/2025	He is a friendly teacher, who always answers questions during lectures. He also gives thoughtful insight about his views on certain individuals and historical policies. However, as stated in another review, the class was sometimes disorganized and we would sometimes not discuss homework for a while. There was often lots of assigned homework, especially lots of reading and movies (watched them at 2x speed). Towards the end, there were a couple pop quizzes but it was quite obvious when they were coming. The final project, supposed to be either a film or in class acting out, was quite silly and strange, yet easy to do well on as long as something was shown. The class consisted of lectures on Monday and Wednesday, and a Friday discussion with the TA. Discussions were graded on participation and always easy full credit, where one could contribute to the discussion a couple times and spend the rest of the time playing computer games and doing other work, which could easily be done during lectures, making class often feel like a joke. Tests often seemed to ask for lots (two short answer questions and one long essay), but they were easily graded and easy to get high scores on by writing down all question related knowledge and making it clear that you have studied and learned something. As a STEM major with an interest in post-WW2 History taking this class as a gen ed, it was interesting learning foreign perspectives of America from the past, especially those of individuals from the global south.
Saverio Giovacchini HIST142 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/06/2025	This professor is quite literally the nicest professor I have ever had in college so far, but why is there so much work for a class that is so unorganized. You'll understand what I say once you take his class, but there is roughly over 80 pages of reading per week (or two movies), sometimes we go over the readings, sometimes we don't go over it until 4 weeks later in which (if you want to understand what he is saying) you have to reread the reading. The final group project is crazy enough where you have to create a film, this class isn't even about film but makes it the final group project because "he likes film". Overall, take the class if you are interested in American history, but if not stay away because the class makes it feel like being in a year long course if you don't enjoy american history.
Saverio Giovacchini HIST142 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/16/2021	Do not take this class. It is 100+ pages of reading a week with random pop quizzes. Most of your grade is based on participation in discussions which is graded pretty harshly. Attendance is mandatory even though the lecture material is virtually irrelevant to the tests and quizzes. There are multiple essays with the most vague instructions possible. The only reason I gave it 2 starts instead of 1 is because the prof and TA were actually smart and kind people. They just ran a terrible course.
Saverio Giovacchini HIST142 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/04/2013	So you know a professor is good when the worst thing you can say about him is his name is too hard to spell. Professor Giovacchini was always incredibly knowledgeable and very good at getting students involved. He would often call on students at random which, to me at least, helped make sure everyone was up to date on readings and awake. Also, for our final project, he insisted on meeting with every group. While we met with him, he gave amazing guidance about sources and possible ideas. He also did a great job of using his expertise to make the class more interesting. He primarily studies film history so he was great at demonstrating the role Hollywood has spread American culture. Also, we got to watch a lot of movies which I personally enjoyed more than the readings. Also our final was to write a movie script (for the scheduled final we just watched the movies). One of my favorite things about this class is just how well he kept bringing up earlier material. How many other teachers could relate Alexis de Tocqueville to Hollywood successfully?The only problem I had with Professor Giovacchini was that he sometimes seemed to jump around a bit time-wise. Like it seems we barely focused on the mid to late 19th century (I really wanted to learn how Europeans felt about slavery) and then spent 2/3's of the class on the early and mid 20th century and we barely got to anything past the 1970's and 80's. So if you are primarily interested in the early industrial era, Giovacchini may not be for you. However, if you want an interesting class with a really smart, involved professor, take Giovacchini. I don't think I've ever seen a professor who tried so hard to have every student succeed.

Saverio Giovacchini
HIST142

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/19/2025

He is a friendly teacher, who always answers questions during lectures. He also gives thoughtful insight about his views on certain individuals and historical policies. However, as stated in another review, the class was sometimes disorganized and we would sometimes not discuss homework for a while. There was often lots of assigned homework, especially lots of reading and movies (watched them at 2x speed). Towards the end, there were a couple pop quizzes but it was quite obvious when they were coming. The final project, supposed to be either a film or in class acting out, was quite silly and strange, yet easy to do well on as long as something was shown. The class consisted of lectures on Monday and Wednesday, and a Friday discussion with the TA. Discussions were graded on participation and always easy full credit, where one could contribute to the discussion a couple times and spend the rest of the time playing computer games and doing other work, which could easily be done during lectures, making class often feel like a joke. Tests often seemed to ask for lots (two short answer questions and one long essay), but they were easily graded and easy to get high scores on by writing down all question related knowledge and making it clear that you have studied and learned something. As a STEM major with an interest in post-WW2 History taking this class as a gen ed, it was interesting learning foreign perspectives of America from the past, especially those of individuals from the global south.

Saverio Giovacchini
HIST142

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/06/2025

This professor is quite literally the nicest professor I have ever had in college so far, but why is there so much work for a class that is so unorganized. You'll understand what I say once you take his class, but there is roughly over 80 pages of reading per week (or two movies), sometimes we go over the readings, sometimes we don't go over it until 4 weeks later in which (if you want to understand what he is saying) you have to reread the reading. The final group project is crazy enough where you have to create a film, this class isn't even about film but makes it the final group project because "he likes film". Overall, take the class if you are interested in American history, but if not stay away because the class makes it feel like being in a year long course if you don't enjoy american history.

Saverio Giovacchini
HIST142

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/16/2021

Do not take this class. It is 100+ pages of reading a week with random pop quizzes. Most of your grade is based on participation in discussions which is graded pretty harshly. Attendance is mandatory even though the lecture material is virtually irrelevant to the tests and quizzes. There are multiple essays with the most vague instructions possible. The only reason I gave it 2 starts instead of 1 is because the prof and TA were actually smart and kind people. They just ran a terrible course.

Saverio Giovacchini
HIST142

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/04/2013

So you know a professor is good when the worst thing you can say about him is his name is too hard to spell. Professor Giovacchini was always incredibly knowledgeable and very good at getting students involved. He would often call on students at random which, to me at least, helped make sure everyone was up to date on readings and awake. Also, for our final project, he insisted on meeting with every group. While we met with him, he gave amazing guidance about sources and possible ideas. He also did a great job of using his expertise to make the class more interesting. He primarily studies film history so he was great at demonstrating the role Hollywood has spread American culture. Also, we got to watch a lot of movies which I personally enjoyed more than the readings. Also our final was to write a movie script (for the scheduled final we just watched the movies). One of my favorite things about this class is just how well he kept bringing up earlier material. How many other teachers could relate Alexis de Tocqueville to Hollywood successfully?The only problem I had with Professor Giovacchini was that he sometimes seemed to jump around a bit time-wise. Like it seems we barely focused on the mid to late 19th century (I really wanted to learn how Europeans felt about slavery) and then spent 2/3's of the class on the early and mid 20th century and we barely got to anything past the 1970's and 80's. So if you are primarily interested in the early industrial era, Giovacchini may not be for you. However, if you want an interesting class with a really smart, involved professor, take Giovacchini. I don't think I've ever seen a professor who tried so hard to have every student succeed.

Reviews for HIST142