These harsh reviews are definitely off the mark. I almost didn't take this class because of these reviews but I am glad I gave it a shot. Professor Yirush is a good lecturer and he is passionate about what he teaches. He's a tough grader in the sense that he will dock points for grammatical errors, but a quick visit to the writing center should be enough to prevent points from being docked. He is definitely not condescending. He is really easygoing and approachable. He is always reminding the class to drop-in to his office hours and he is open to scheduling office hour visits by appointment if you can't make it during his schedule office hours. Overall, a great professor. I only wish he used powerpoints since I am a visual-learner. But that aside, this is a great class. If you a Revolutionary War-nerd like me you will really like this class.

Professor Yirush was an incredibly engaging professor. You can tell he knows a lot about the subject and loves teaching it. I think people don't like this class because it is challenging; readings could take me a really long time some weeks, but not every week was bad. If you are interested in the material, this class is super worth it. I didn't find his grading too harsh. Just proofread, follow directions, and you should be fine. He was also very receptive to students' needs and changed our in-person final (supposed to be on Friday of finals week) to a remote, three-page paper. Overall, I would consider it a disservice to yourself if you passed up on this class just because it can be time-consuming.

This class is a LOT of work. This class takes about on avg. 10-15 hours a week of assignments/ reading. Weekly written assignments that are essentially medium-sized essays (about 4 pages with citings). Unfortunately, we all felt the final instructions and grading were unclear. The professor is super nice and a good teacher but the class itself is far too difficult for 4 units. Avoid if possible.

Professor Yirush is a divisive professor. On one hand, his lectures are engaging, and you do learn a lot. However, he grades harshly for grammar so I recommend heavily proofreading your work. He has many attributes that make his, in some respects, a good professor. But, I can honestly say I hated this class. He seems like he wants to help you when he presents himself in lecture, but he has a condescending attitude that appears very suddenly. I felt very uncomfortable asking him questions and going to office hours. If you talk a lot and sit in the front, he will probably really like you. If you occasionally talk but don't speak in discussion often that much because you don't feel like you have that much to add, he will be less kind to you. I don't know how to explain it, but it seems as if he assumes the worst about you, even if you don't skip and just want to be a normal student.

It is hard to explain, but I, along with many others, felt that he created an atmosphere that was not conducive to a learning environment. Also, he says he is understanding but he is neither understanding nor forgiving.

The structure of this class is a pain. Most of the graded material isn't due until week 8 or later, so you don't know where you stand in terms of how well you understand the material. There are two pop quizzes throughout the quarter, so you have to prepare for every Friday discussion as if there was a quiz that day. The two quizzes are very specific, so if you happen to be unprepared that week, sucks for you. I wish there were weekly quizzes so that I could make mistakes early on.

Since this class is backloaded, good luck if you misinterpret prompts and make mistakes. I wish this class was well balanced.

Yirush made it difficult to grasp the themes of the class, and his demeanor made it uncomfortable to visit during office hours. He seems interested in helping, but once in office hours, or through emails, he is extremely condescending. I look forward to the remainder of my UCLA career without having to deal with this incompetent professor

This was one of the best classes I've taken so far, and I was kind of dismayed to see that the only other review (from several years ago) was fairly negative. The class size for this course is small and class discussions on clarifying the readings are a major part of the class. Prof. Yirush is a very engaging and organized lecturer who not only delivers information efficiently, but shows how it fits in the larger themes and context of what we're learning. I do admit that a lot of the primary source readings were a bit much at times, but pushing through them was very beneficial for being able to get a better understanding of the material, and he is always very welcoming of questions. For the readings, he also emails out specific questions which are helpful for knowing what to focus on, and also are helpful to look back at while studying for the final. I wasn't able to go to office hours much because of conflict in my schedule, but the one time I did go (for questions on studying for the final) he was very patient and helpful. He gives a lot of good tips on general writing and grammar that I kind of dismissed at first because to me it seemed like basic high-school standard stuff, but it was actually a really welcome review and helped strengthen my writing and approach in the end. Definitely would recommend!

Also, the required readings/textbooks are extremely affordable, i don't think I spent more than $30 getting them from amazon, and the rest are PDFs given on CCLE.

I feel compelled to write something about Professor Yirush because of my very negative experience with him. I think it is safe to say that working with him was the worst part of my UCLA experience. That is almost a compliment, because I really have nothing to complain about UCLA. Professor Yirush is condescending, disorganized, petty and extremely unprofessional. He likes to humiliate athletes and students in general who he suspects haven't read. Obviously, everyone should read, but berating students doesn't really achieve anything except to create a hostile learning environment. Other reviewers have noted that he is a helpful writing mentor; that is true--but only when he feels inclined to be helpful. He wastes a lot of time freaking out about tiny details like page numbers.
I worked with him closely and I have to say this was a complete nightmare. He shared personal and confidential information about me with my entire class when I wasn't there. I obviously am not going to talk about what it was specifically-- but it was on par with sharing my medical history with the class and gossiping and speculating about it with them. I found out about this because one of my classmates approached me and asked me how I was regarding the matter a little later. I told Professor Yirush about this information because I had to miss class one day because of it and I wanted an excused absence. I thought it went without saying that I wouldn't have to tell him, "by the way, would you mind not gossiping about this with the class?" Apparently not.
On another occasion I submitted a paper I wrote for his class I wanted to submit it for the library prize. I gave him more than a week's notice, and he said he would do it. He emailed me days after the prize was due to inform me he didn't turn it in because he didn't have time. The form would have taken 10 minutes TOPS. He didn't apologize, in fact he tried to put the blame on me because the paper wasn't completed yet. The library prize actually did not require a completed paper-- it just had to be a draft. Did he care that the prize had a monetary prize? No. Did he care that it's actually his job to write recommendations? No. He just viewed me as being so far below him that he thought it wouldn't matter because he's SUCH a distinguished scholar. As riveting as his book I'm sure is- keep in mind, the tuition students pay is what goes into professors paychecks--not the sales from the 20 people who will read your book. That at least earned me some notice that he wasn't going to turn in the form and that I should make other accommodations.
He was always late getting back to me and gave me no heads up. I ended up having to work on a paper throughout the entirety of spring break because he failed to get back to me before then. Did it matter I had already booked plans to leave town weeks ago?
I dreaded writing every email I had to send him. His responses were always really mean and he had no tact whatsoever. Sometimes he even forgot what he emailed me the day before and he would get mad at me for asking him to do something he told me he'd do the day before!
I'm not saying that he is like this for every student he works with. But this is what he was like with me-- and it's possible for other students who plan on taking one of his classes and want to make an effort to work with him personally. He made up his mind after a certain point that he didn't like me and then made it as apparent as humanly possible that I was the very last of his "many" priorities. (I have yet to find out with what he was actually so busy--I've worked with many other professors in the history department who have much greater demands and were at least respectful toward me.) In any case, treating just one student the way he treated me is completely unacceptable. I came to conclude after a while that he was taking out frustration about other matters in his life on me because I really did nothing to provoke him. This whole experience was just a shame because I am actually a really engaged student who is enthusiastic about history and learning. At the end of the day, many of his suggestions were helpful, but it was only after enduring long periods of complete unreliability and abusive emails before he actually told me what he thought of my paper.