Found this subject super interesting! Being able to take week-long dives into particular topics meant that we got a good breadth of knowledge from the 18th century onwards and we didn't have to stay on any one topic for too long. Having guest lecturers each week did make the subject a little inconsistent but it was awesome to get lectures from so many experts. I loved the final project because of how much freedom was given - you can choose any medium and any topic from the subject to include. I also enjoyed the exam for this reason - we were able to choose from ANY moment in history (not just those in the subject) and write a 1000 word essay on how concepts in the subject related to it. I found marking a little harsh, but not much harsher than most history subjects. Overall would recommend!

Anonymous, Semester 2, 2020

This was awful! Admittedly I'd never done a history subject before, but for a first-year subject there was such little explanation or guidance on the massive assignments (which seemed somewhat complex for first year?), sooo much assumed knowledge in the content, one frequent lecturer who did horrendously boring 70-slide presentations in the hour given - each slide full of decontextualised text and quotes that were barely explained before moving on, large inconsistencies between actual assignment deadlines and what was stated on the subject LMS, being assigned entire books for required tutorial readings... I was out by week 5.

Anonymous, Semester 2, 2019

I had high hopes for this subject - which were quickly crushed within the first few weeks. The content was overall really interesting but I didn't enjoy how the subject was run. The assigned readings were very long and tedious. Some weeks we were expected to read a whole book (we only had to skim it - but still ridiculous!) before the tutes. We focused on a few primary sources in one of the weeks, but I would've liked to do more instead of only ever reading secondary sources. There were two lecturers. Mark was great, but the other guy (forgot his name) was not very engaging. His lectures were a perfect example of 'death by powerpoint' - way too much content jammed into 70-80 slides in a one hour lecture. My least favourite aspect of this subject was the assignment structure. Call me a traditionalist, but I enjoy a good history essay. There were no essays in this subject. Instead, there was an annotated bibliography and a research plan (both of which were very poorly explained) which culminated in a final 'historical exhibit.' I found this structure uninteresting and vague, and only having 1200 words in the final exhibit to display a semester's worth of research was restrictive and made the entire process feel a bit pointless. Also, we were required to use secondary sources that were no more than 10 years old - which was very difficult, and in my opinion not an appropriate restriction to place on history research. Overall, it is very disappointing to see that this is the only level one history subject that runs in semester 2. I regret studying it. All my other experiences in the history faculty have been excellent - so if you do this subject, don't let it put you off history at unimelb!

Anonymous, Semester 2, 2019