HIUS 3031

This was my second class with Taylor and I throughly enjoyed it. You go very in-dept on a shorter time period which I enjoyed. It's structure the same as his other classes with IDs, papers and a final. The part of this class that stuck out to me was the discussion sections. You basically role play a character from the 1770-1800 over the course of the semester. You start by giving a 1-2 page speech (he calls it a pamphlet) in front of the class. The other weeks of discussion were mainly debate style between patriots and loyalists with new topics based on the weekly readings. Overall, a super engaging discussion, TA Jeremy is great and super knowledgable, but you definitely have to participate and debate with your classmates to make it worthwhile. The Midterm and Final are the similar, both at home online on IDs with some analysis.

Alan Taylor continues to amaze me. This was a phenomenal class and I highly recommend that anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of America's origins take this course. There isn't a ton of work to do, only a select amount of readings that need to be completed for discussion sections as well as some written speeches. The exams can be a little difficult due to the amount of memorization and depth that is required. I still greatly enjoyed this course.

Professor Taylor is an excellent lecturer. I was always engaged during class time and learned a lot about the American Revolution. There is a fair amount of reading, some of which is on the dull side. There were weekly quizzes on readings in discussion for a while, but then they stopped (and then later picked up again). There are two short essays but they were graded fairly tough by TAs. One midterm and a final as well. Overall, I learned a lot and enjoyed attending lecture. I wouldn't say it's an easy course, though, so be prepared to study all readings and lecture notes to be prepared for quizzes and exams.