This course is one of the best courses I have taken at UVA. It was taught by both Professor Achilles and Professor Kunakovich, and they both were dynamic and interesting lecturers. The course content was fascinating, and I found myself almost excited to attend this class. The expectations for the course were quite clear, and if you met them, you would be successful. Readings weren't too bad, but sometimes were a bit long. There was a weekly "lesson" assignment that was a 300-word reflection on what you learned. Midterms and the final weren't too bad, and the professors made sure you were adequately prepared. There was also a creative project and portfolio (the accumulation of the "lessons") due at the end of the semester. There were also multiple extra credit opportunities. Grading was fair, and the TAs were amazing. The professors also included guest speakers from across the world to come and give interesting lectures. Overall, I 100% recommend this course.

Achilles is by far my favorite professor at UVA. She is not only extremely knowledgeable; she is methodical, exacting, precisive, and kind. She approaches history with a streamlined syllabus that makes learning digestible and creates focus on learning. This is turn creates interest. She wants you to be focused on learning the material and connecting it to a broader theme rather than an upkeeping of mass amounts of information, which I think is what marks her brilliance as a professor. That being said, the resources she includes into the class are broad, roomy, and interesting. They cross different mediums such as movies, scholar sources, primary sources, and great lectures. She teaches history with a compassionate voice and UVA is lucky to have a professor of this quality. I highly recommend taking any class with her. You won't regret it.

This class was fairly easy overall. Achilles is a great instructor, and the expectations are clear from the beginning. As long as you stay on top of the readings and complete the assignments on time, this is a manageable A. From someone who actually enjoyed the course topic a lot though, I definitely didn't feel like I enjoyed the material over the course or how it was covered.