Reviews for HIST355

Information Review
Robert Chiles
HIST355

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/08/2025
Professor Chiles is simply the greatest lecturer I've had at UMD and probably ever. This is the second class I've taken with him and through both classes his standards have never and I expect never will drop. Coming from someone who's very into history and minoring in it, but who was quite uninterested in American history, Professor Chiles managed to get me incredibly engaged going from the Antebellum period and the civil war to the turn of the 20th century. My main piece of advice is that you'll definitely need to take some good notes as there are weekly discussion posts that you're expected to engage with that are based around those. His oral midterms and final exams are a setup that I hadn't experienced before this class, but became not only far more enjoyable then written exams, but incredibly enriching and something I've looked forward to for the past two semesters. Professor Chiles is also a very engaging conversationalist and dedicated to his craft and his students. Overall no matter what class you take with him you can't go wrong and I can almost guarantee it will become a quintessential part of your time at UMD for the better.
Robert Chiles
HIST355

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/12/2024
Dr. Chiles is by FAR the best professor I have had at UMD. His lectures are engaging and always interesting. I have trouble maintaining focus a lot during 1hr15min lectures, but in this class I don't think I had this problem a single time. I also don't think I've ever seen so many people come consistently to a class where attendance isn't taken -- that's just a sign of how genuinely good of a lecturer he is. Seriously, this seems to be what he is meant to do, and I hope to take many more classes from him because I had the best experience in this class.
Robert Chiles
HIST355

Expecting an A+
frankMiller
12/21/2023
What do you expect? It's Chiles! Can't really go wrong with him. Several of my classmates took several classes of his, some of them multiple in the same semester.