Ferguson was chair of the French department when I took this class, and he’s a very cool guy. He knows so much about French history and loves to talk about it. Grade in this class comes from 2 exams, 2 papers, and 2 presentations. He does not give high grades generally (seems to follow the French model of not believing in 100s), so you will have to really work for it. Exams are not hard though. Very nice in office hours. Readings are kept to reasonable length and cover interesting topics and primary sources. He rounds course grades up to the nearest point.