Reviews for HIST142

Information Review
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.