PLPT 1010

Great class. Bird is entertaining, informative, and challenging to your personal views. I took Chelsea- wouldn't recommend her.

The class was very heavy on dense reading, but Bird covers the reading so well in lecture that if you come to every class and pay attention in discussion you should be fine with only skimming. Overall I enjoyed the class and ended up doing very well, but it is a survey class; we didn't go into too much depth on anything in particular. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in thinking about how people govern themselves and looking for a relatively easy grade, but you need to be willing to either do all of the reading or pay a lot of attention in class or discussion.

Professor Bird is awesome! I really hope to take another class with him! That being said, a lot of the reading assigned was really dense and difficult to get through but it wasn't exactly necessary since Bird is pretty thorough in lectures. If you are any kind of politics major this class is worth your time

I would definitely recommend Professor Bird. Not only is he engaging but he's really approachable and he'll talk to you for hours because he's interested in the subject and his students! One of the best classes I've taken so far

Bird makes this course fun! The lecture slides are clear and he's a straightforward lecturer. The reading isn't that important, but at least skim it. Don't take Charlee Tidrick as a TA, her grading is too subject and a bit all over the place. She doesn't seem to have a good idea of what her students can do in the given time.

Prof. Bird is an entertaining lecturer but he mostly reads from his powerpoints which are subsequently posted on collab. The ppts are pretty comprehensive but you need to at least skim the readings, which come from books and pdfs on collab. Some find the material interesting, but it really is all about theory - the material is no way, shape, or form practical knowledge. Therefore, I found it incredibly boring. Two five page papers and a mid term and a final. Open notes.

Professor Bird is absolutely amazing and funny; however, going to class isn't exactly necessary because he reads straight from his PowerPoints which go straight to Collab. But his lectures are great. However, if there was less reading and I had a better TA then I would have liked the class a lot better.

Professor Bird is a fantastic professor. He’s extremely passionate and will hold your attention for most of the class, especially if you enjoy philosophy, debate, and/or politics. The class does not entail much reading. I’d say it’s about 50-60 pages a week, composed of books and pdf files from Collab. I would not recommend buying any of the assigned books since you’ll literally be reading only 100 pages from some of them (for example Rawls’ Theory of Justice is about 600 or so pages and you’ll only end up reading about 70 pages). The readings, like most political philosophy, are dense and sometimes hard to extrapolate what is being said. Don’t worry, however, Bird’s slides are extremely comprehensive and tell you all you need to know about what comes from the readings. Not to mention the midterm and final are open note, so you can just have your computer open with the slides from Collab. The class, however, is not an easy A. The two papers are graded harshly and I feel like there’s a large divide between B+ and A-. You’ll have to put a decent amount of original thought into your essays and tests to get an A.

Bird is hyper but his British accent makes lectures bearable. Not an easy A if you don't have a good TA. A lot of readings but never did them cause PPTs summarized them and midterm and finals were open notes. But you still have to study because the tests are essays.

Personally, I thought this class quite easy; everything you need to know is on the powerpoints, tests are open note, and the TA's are more than willing to help you work out paper topics and arguments. Which reminds me, GO TO YOUR TA BEFORE YOU TURN IN PAPERS. It's not that the papers are hard, but there is a direct correlation between doing really well and seeing your TA. I thought the reading was minuscule, but that might be because I am a history major and am just used to it. Overall the class had a good atmosphere, but not the most fulfilling. I know that once I realized Bird would just say what's on the powerpoints and post them online, I stopped taking notes. But, he is quite funny and the discussion Democracy at the end of the semester will make you think. Good class for first years if you make use of your TA's office hours.