Don't take this class unless you like history. You need to be able to handle comparatively-stale lectures. The workload is light though. The readings are pretty much optional if you take good notes, and the only exams are midterms and finals.

James obviously enjoys economic history, but his lectures are incredibly boring. That being said, I rarely attended and only did the readings for classes I missed, and still got an A. Though James goes into details, you need only very, very broad concepts for the midterms and exams. It also helps if the small class gets together to talk about topics for a few hours before the exam, since the readings can be dense.

TAKE THIS CLASS! It's 4000-level, its only assignments are a midterm and a final, there's no math, and if you take good notes in class you can get an A without reading ANYTHING. Though if you do zone out during Professor James' interesting-but-monotonous lectures, as I occasionally did, it might help to form a study group with your classmates and take turns writing summaries of the readings, which are 90% filler anyway. Overall, this is the most painless 4000-level Econ class you could take, except maybe Behavioral Finance. Take it.

Do not take this class--James is a grumpy old man who knows a lot but it is such a miserable class, with tons of reading and the exams are very difficult.

The material for this class is interesting and relevant. Midterm and final consisted of IDs and Essay response.

Consider carefully whether you're interested in taking a history course in the econ department--because that's what this is. Not the easy A you non-quant folks may be seeking.