If you are interested in 20th century US history or movies, this is the class for you. It explores the American experience from 1940-1980, often through American culture and movies. Each week has ~150 pages of reading + one movie. Professor Balogh is an engaging lecturer who combines personal experiences and historical scholarship to explain the time period. He always wanted students to email him questions, and would respond with long in-depth answers. Because it is a small range of years, there was time to go in depth. The class had a midterm, final, paper, and group project. None of them were particularly difficult. The group project wasn't great online, but it is a very interesting project were you get to create your own unit for the course. Discussion sections with Brianna were absolutely amazing. The other students were engaged and Briana did a great job moderating discussion. I'd definitely recommend taking this course if you think it might interest you.

Great prof. Readings were pretty manageable for a history course besides some weeks where we'd have a whole 200 pg book to read for some reason. Exams were just short questions based on the course material, and for the final you had some flexibility with what kind of format you wanted. One wrench was that we had a group project to do with upwards of ten members in each group which made things pretty chaotic but still not all that much work. Definitely recommend, subject matter was super intriguing and you watch a lot of really thought provoking movies.

Balogh is straight up awesome. Great and engaging lecturer who cares about his students. I recommend doing the readings and watching the movies each week to do well. Some of the movies are actually pretty good. Weekly reading quizzes (3 questions, check or no check each week?). CYOU (create your own unit) project was not bad. A little difficult to coordinate with a group of 10 people, but still not terrible. The midterm was straightforward.... in class, a few ids that you have to write a paragraph for and an essay. The only major problem that I had with the class was with the TA Mina. She was probably the worst TA that I've ever had for a class. She is unorganized, spends too much time going over logistics before discussing anything, hard to reach over email, and it takes a while to explain straightforward stuff for her. If you try to get feedback from her, it's like pulling teeth. Stefan filled in for a couple of sessions and was way better. I still recommend this class because Balogh is a great professor. Just avoid Mina as a TA if you can.

Professor Balogh is an amazing professor. He really cares about the class, likes to crack jokes, and seems to actually care about his students. He's super approachable and one of my favorite professors at UVA so far.
The class is very interesting but definitely a lot of work. The readings take up a few hours every week (and sometimes include an entire book), plus you're supposed to watch one movie every week. There were some times I fell behind and didn't get things done before section but could skim enough for the reading quiz, but I think to succeed it's best to put your effort into the readings.
Stefan was my TA and was great! I don't know if TA's stick around for multiple semesters but I've heard great things about Mina, too.

One of my favorite classes. There's a good amount of reading and a movie that needs to be watched each week. Lectures are dry, however you get to choose what your final is and in spring 2012 it was optional

This class was very easy. That being said, the lectures are very dry. Though Balogh is an extremely nice guy and encourages class participation, he doesn't get very much of it, and his lectures lack organization. Still, the readings, though numerous, were not entirely necessary. There's a pretty cool online system that he uses that includes the class syllabus and links to related media to the unit. Best thing by far about this class was D.H. He had a really awesome guest lecture, and was an awesome TA.

This course was invaluable in teaching social and cultural movements as rooted in political and economic developments in the specified time period (1940-1980). Would recommend to majors and non-majors alike.

this class is erally interesting. a lot of reading but you dont even need to do it because the midterm is just IDs of events and the paper is on images which are easy and the final is optional this year

The lectures could be a little dry, but the class material is great!

Willa was an AMAZING TA! She made discussion fun to attend and I found it really helped me grasp some of the larger concepts. Balogh is great! Unlike some professors he actually tries to get to know his students and is accessible. In general, an interesting class that I would recommend, although I would agree CYOU was kind of a time-drain and I wish we could use participatory democracy in some of the movie selections!