Michael Kraus

this was a very lecture heavy class, I personally do not engage with this style of teaching but if its something you enjoy then do so - Kraus is very knowledgeable and he really enjoys teaching, but his classes are slow and archaic and you just sit there most of the time. you can skip most of the readings after the first paper. the mid term was okay, grading is fair. discussions are very chill. only take this if you need to for the major or personal interest, not as a filler class

this was a very lecture heavy class, I personally do not engage with this style of teaching but if its something you enjoy then do so - Kraus is very knowledgeable and he really enjoys teaching, but his classes are slow and archaic and you just sit there most of the time. you can skip most of the readings after the first paper. the m …Read more

Professor Kraus lectures for 75 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday. These lectures are long and quite monotonous as well as difficult to take notes on. He does not use PowerPoints or anything on a screen so it is easy to sometimes miss things. The exams and papers are not too easy and not too hard depending on how much you paid attention. There is a weekly discussion but he often spends most of this talking as well. He is a very interesting and great guy, I am just not a big fan of his teaching style

Professor Kraus lectures for 75 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday. These lectures are long and quite monotonous as well as difficult to take notes on. He does not use PowerPoints or anything on a screen so it is easy to sometimes miss things. The exams and papers are not too easy and not too hard depending on how much you paid atten …Read more

Michael Kraus has been teaching at Middlebury for over 40 years. His lectures reflect this in a couple ways: He talks pretty slowly and only has slides for a few of his lectures, meaning the lectures can go pretty slowly. But he also knows what he's talking about and will be able to answer pretty much any question from before the past year. In terms of the reading, very little of them are strictly necessary for class or exams and can be done selectively, but the essays will feature Grossman and Frye heavily (12 pages total). The only other writing you have to do are 6 1-page discussion readings. I'd say 70% of the readings were still interesting, but the generic history ones contain info covered in lectures so can be skipped. Overall, difficulty was pretty low, so if the material itself will be interesting to you, you'll really have no problems.

Michael Kraus has been teaching at Middlebury for over 40 years. His lectures reflect this in a couple ways: He talks pretty slowly and only has slides for a few of his lectures, meaning the lectures can go pretty slowly. But he also knows what he's talking about and will be able to answer pretty much any question from before the pas …Read more