HIEU 3812

Megill is very funny and very intellectually engaging. The reading load for Marxism is very reasonable in comparison to most history courses. And the real Marx is much cooler and more interesting than the popular conception of Marx.

Megill knows his stuff making this an interesting class. It is really best taken if you've had intro philosophy or European history. This class isn't too hard (though it seems daunting) but it is difficult for those of us who are used to writing only sciencelab reports.

Professor Megill is one of the most scary-brilliant teachers at the University, not to mention he is almost certainly insane. Whether one views these factors as negative or positive, this was one extremely worthwhile and meaningful course for any one with an interest in Marx. You will come out of this class knowing your stuff. Lots of hard reading.

sooooooo worthwhile- marx is everywhere. Megill may be the most intelligent professor i've ever had too. the course can seem cumbersome at first, but give it a week- there's certainly a learning curve to reading Marx. can't recommend it enough

LOTS of extremely dense reading material that presupposes substantial knowledge of philosophers like Hegel. Exams are half essay and half passage ID questions that ask for ID's of multiple 1-2 sentence excerpts from the reading that may or may not have been discussed in class.

Megill is a genius, but as a genius, he's pretty inaccessible. He's very well versed in foreign languages, history, literature, philosophy, economics, and obviously, Marx. More of an academic than a teacher. I felt that he spent too much time rambling about the minutiae of Marx's life and thought and not about important principles. I did learn a lot of Marx and Marxism though, but mostly from reading the material closely. In the beginning, it was really difficult, but you eventually adjust yourself to Marx's style of thinking. Megill described the midterm as an inverse bell curve (lots of Fs, D, and Cs, a fair amount of As). Overall, take this course if you want to witness a genius in action or if you want to force yourself to understand Marxism beyond its stereotype.

Good class. Not a history major but interested in the material, so took it C/NC. Good decision because it is interesting, but it does require a lot of reading to do well

One of the best classes I've taken at UVa thus far. Megill is incredibly intelligent, and really pushes you to think and write clearly. The class is difficult, but manageably so if you're able to put the time into it. You'll get a lot out of the course, not just knowledge about Marx, if you put the effort in.

This class is definitely worth taking, even if it is difficult. Megill is clearly a professor who cares more about teaching his students to think than about grades, which makes it a really rewarding class to take.

Professor Megill is one of the brightest intellectuals in UVa. Class is well-organized, the professor has been teaching it for around 30 years and he always tries to improve the class even further each year. The class goes chronologically with Marx's writings, from the earliest, so you can evaluate him with his own development. One midterm with relatively less weight, one paper which will probably be your hardest but most intellectually rewarding, and one final. This class will change you, take it.