HIUS 3011

This class (Colonial U.S. history was AWFUL). He only focused on maps, and was a horrible lecturer, and this is coming from a third-year history major. However, easy to do well without paying the least bit attention. A midterm, final, and two papers, and he posts all of his lecture notes word for word online, so EASY.

I honestly learned more from my TA David than I did from lecture. All you look at is maps in class, and there is so much reading to do. Two papers, a midterm, and a final. Unless you're a history major, I would definitely not recommend this class.

I don't really agree with the other two people who've written reviews on this class. Given I'm a history major and find the topic interesting, but I think Edelson is a good lecturer on the whole. Yes, he does use a lot of maps because that's his area of expertise, but they all serve as examples to illustrate a larger point/contention that he's making. Definitely a worthwhile class if you have any interest in American History at all, and not overly difficult. Two papers, a midterm, and a final, with comprehensive study guides given and review sessions held. He also posts outlines and slides to all of his lectures on Collab, so it's easy to follow along, even if you miss a class or two.

At first, I wanted to switch out of this class. The previous reviews are correct in that there are a ton of maps. But the more involved in the class you get, the more you realize how important and interesting the maps are. The reading manages to make a usually dry topic interesting, the papers are written on primary sources. Mary Draper is a great TA that will go over anything in discussion and helps out a lot with papers.

This class was very interesting. The section meetings are required. This is where the TA discusses the readings that you must use to write the papers. Very informative and I learned a lot!

I really enjoyed this class. The TA, Mary Draper is great. She helps out a ton with papers and preps you well for exams and geography quizzes. Professor Edelson used maps as his approach to the class which I found refreshing and different from the typical history class.

This class was an interesting time period to study but the lectures could have been more engaging.

There is ALOT of reading, so if you do not care much for the theme and subject itself, I would not recommend this class. Edelson can be a dry and boring lecturer at times and mildly captivating at other times, just depends on the day. He started using a new program to accompany his lectures which was kind of annoying because he only puts maps and images on the slides and no writing or anything, so if you miss a class or zone out for a few minutes in his dry lectures, you miss the information. Shira Lurie is the best TA I have ever had, so definetly go to discussion. She genuinely cares to help you and knows what she is talking about. Overall, an average class at best.

I'm going to break down the class by the syllabus:

First, you have 2 papers. Both are worth 20% of your final grade. The first one is graded kindly (probably because everyone writes the same prompt so there's a wider variety of quality) , the second one is graded more harshly. I got an A/A- on the first and a B+ on the second.

The midterm is somewhat difficult, but easy to prepare for. Make sure to learn the map! It's worth 20%.

Attendance is worth 15%. This is actually what killed my grade. DO ALL THE COLLAB POSTS. My grade would have increased by 3 entire points if I had done it. Do the collab posts.

The final exam: I imagined it would be awful, but honestly it wasn't that bad. It was 5 IDs (of ten to choose from), a short essay about one of the 12 primary readings we did, and a long essay which they gave us the prompt to. Really, seriously, this is doable.

I'll be blunt, Professor Edelson can be a little dry. About midways through the semester, there were a string of lectures that nearly put me to sleep and had me spacing out quite a bit. Perhaps it has to do with my own attention span or my lack of interest in hearing about corn for 50 minutes, but Edelson's lecture style really wasn't for me.

That said, Brian Neumann is easily the best TA I've ever had. I'm giving the class 4/5 for him alone. He's nice, he grades fairly, and I feel safe with my work in his hands. He explained things from lectures clearly and did a nice job with preparing us for the exam.

I'd recommend the class overall, but when you're sleeping during some of those corn lectures, don't forget that I told you so.

I loved this class--colonial history is a really interesting time period to study. There are only 2 papers and I thought they were graded fairly. The midterm and final were stressful while they were happening (especially the midterm because of the time crunch) but actually not that bad content-wise. If Brian Neumann is the TA I HIGHLY recommend taking the class just for him. He was seriously the best TA I have had at UVA or probably will have; he was super helpful and easy to talk to. He also facilitated a great discussion environment and was really friendly and fun. Edelson was very knowledgable on the subject, though sometimes he was a little dry. He used the timeline really well though to highlight important topics from the book that would ultimately be IDs on the exams. Overall, if you don't mind some moderate-heavyish reading each week and 2 medium-length papers, I recommend the course.