History of Modern Africa

This is one of the hardest classes in Middlebury and by far the hardest history class I have taken. i am a history major and have taken classes across the board in the department, and this one was my only non-A and the hardest one I had. He is one of the harshest graders who takes points off for the smallest things, has a test for material that covers the history of all of Africa and includes something ridiculous like having to memorize key facts, years, and figures about 50+ figures. The readings are also fictional books, so I am not even sure if his essays are necessarily historical and seem more like English literature. In short, I would recommend taking literally any other history course over this. History 600, the junior paper, or History 700, the senior thesis, is more fun and easier than this class. Avoid this class at all costs.

This is one of the hardest classes in Middlebury and by far the hardest history class I have taken. i am a history major and have taken classes across the board in the department, and this one was my only non-A and the hardest one I had. He is one of the harshest graders who takes points off for the smallest things, has a test for ma …Read more

I took this class as a distribution requirement and would not recommend it if you were to take it for that reason. The lectures are constant talking, and there are never words on the slides. They are also extremely fast-paced. Professor Tropp is also an extremely harsh grader and expects you to know the exact dates of events that happened on his exams. The essays are on books that are pretty boring and very difficult to write and will be picked apart by Professor Tropp.

I took this class as a distribution requirement and would not recommend it if you were to take it for that reason. The lectures are constant talking, and there are never words on the slides. They are also extremely fast-paced. Professor Tropp is also an extremely harsh grader and expects you to know the exact dates of events that hap …Read more

Jacob Tropp is perhaps one of if not the harshest graders on campus. As a history major, I thought my writing was at least on par with where it should be currently, however, Jacob Tropp grades as if your writing is the worst thing in the world. I highly recommend you steer clear from this class and any subsequent classes with Tropp as the professor.

The class was overall very important for me to take. I learnt a lot from it but the professor made it somehow painful to be in the class. He is honestly a somewhat tough grader but he teaches with enthusiasm.

You can tell Tropp really cares about this class and the subject material. But, it moved super quickly, and I felt like I could never get everything written down. The exams were a lot more focused on memorization then actually engaging with the concepts.

Very valuable class. Lecture content is fascinating, well organized and very fast paced. Readings are mostly supplemental, except for three novels, of which you choose two to write papers on. The books were dense and difficult reads (each took me 15-20 hours) but felt relevant to contextualize the lecture material. Tropp is a tough grader but he gives the most thorough feedback of any prof I've had at Middlebury. My returned papers had comments on almost every sentence, and the feedback pushed me to improve as a writer. The midterm exam was also intense but much more forgiving. Definitely take this class if you have the opportunity, and take advantage of office hours (they were super helpful!)

Very valuable class. Lecture content is fascinating, well organized and very fast paced. Readings are mostly supplemental, except for three novels, of which you choose two to write papers on. The books were dense and difficult reads (each took me 15-20 hours) but felt relevant to contextualize the lecture material. Tropp is a tough …Read more

Professor Tropp was a great and enthusiastic professor. You could get by in this class without doing most of the reading, as the material in the textbook was covered in class by the lectures. Tropp's lectures were interesting and engaging, and you can see his passion for the class. He did make us read two books throughout the semester and write papers on them, which increased the workload significantly. He was a harsh grader on the essays, but the exams were not too bad and there was a take-home essay component on all the exams.

Professor Tropp was a great and enthusiastic professor. You could get by in this class without doing most of the reading, as the material in the textbook was covered in class by the lectures. Tropp's lectures were interesting and engaging, and you can see his passion for the class. He did make us read two books throughout the semeste …Read more

The workload in this class is particularly low. Despite a minimal amount of reading the grading is incredibly harsh. The class is not anywhere near as difficult as one would expect from such a harsh grader. Essentially you will not have much work yet you will be scrutinized to an unbelievable standard.

Professor Tropp seems intimidating at first, but is very fun. His presentations do not include any written words, just pictures, and he does not provide any additional notes on the material. Thus, you have to be good at taking notes to do well in this class.

Tropp is engaging and highly knowledgeable. He is a tough grader and holds students to a high bar with their writing in particular. His tests are not specifically challenging as long as you prepare for them.

Professor Tropp is super knowledgeable about African history and you will learn a lot in this class and have really interesting discussions. However, the essays are all based on novels (which is kinda weird for a history class) and he grades them harshly.

So Lot to say about this class -- the material itself was fascinating and I thought that the prof was a great lecturer and always had my attention. Lectures were really well planned. But I would say that the readings were my biggest source of frustration. I hated the readings. It would've been great if the readings truly were a supplement to the course, but not when there are two essays (which he grades actually quite harshly). I thought I was a good writer until I took this course.

So Lot to say about this class -- the material itself was fascinating and I thought that the prof was a great lecturer and always had my attention. Lectures were really well planned. But I would say that the readings were my biggest source of frustration. I hated the readings. It would've been great if the readings truly were a suppl …Read more

I learned a lot in this class. Tropp would assign textbook reading required for lectures. He would then go in depth about the readings in class. He was very good at explaining conflicts, concepts, etc and identified clear and relevant connections between each topic. His teaching and lecture style were very engaging and easy to follow. In terms of major assignments, he gives two major papers based on novels and two sit down exams that include vocab recall, geography/map labelling, and a take home essay portion. Overall, I liked this class, learned a lot, and would recommend it to others.

I learned a lot in this class. Tropp would assign textbook reading required for lectures. He would then go in depth about the readings in class. He was very good at explaining conflicts, concepts, etc and identified clear and relevant connections between each topic. His teaching and lecture style were very engaging and easy to follow …Read more