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Robert Friedel HIST405 followfletcher 06/04/2014	I'll try to be nice... I honestly think Robert Friedel has a tremendous grasp of the subjects he teaches (HIST206, HIST405, HIST406, HIST408) and also wants all of his students to have the same depth of knowledge. The only thing hampering him is his utter contempt for students. He doesn't seem to understand that criticism should always be constructive but not always negative. Watching him attempt to interact with the class was more of a lesson in terrorism than a lesson in history. He repeatedly lured students in with some tough, open-ended questions then would promptly savage them rhetorically after receiving their responses. "Raise your hand if you think that..?", then SMASH! Raising your hand is ill-advised, not that it will help you if you avoid doing so. He's been known to hold up the entire class for a few minutes until he finally gets an answer. He really can be a great lecturer but a bit difficult to understand sometimes because of his hearing impairment. He does not post lecture notes online (but if you know where to look, you can find them ;-)), so take your butt to class or feel the wrath. Please arrive on time! His epic take downs of late-comers has garnered him the legendary moniker of "Deaf Hitler" by some students in private. He follows the syllabus and generally stays on schedule but his grading practices are notoriously capricious and need more specificity. For instance, on one assignment, we were expected to critique the work of a fellow classmate. Our grade depended on whether or not it was "ruthless" enough for his taste. Misanthrope? Most of the time, people had no clue what the topic was for that week's assignment. On one particular week, at least three of us wrote a paper on the same topic, all roughly the same length (about one paragraph), and supported it with the same source. No collaboration was involved nor was it ever alleged by anyone. You guessed it, we all received very different grades. You will scratch your head trying to figure out why he takes off points. I hope I wasn't too hard on him. He's not a bad professor and, to be fair, this is supposed to be a tough class. Trust me, he is "Ivy-League" smart but his personality is more of a caricature of an Ivy League professor's. He loves books, hates people. On the other hand, he has a right to be annoyed by some students that don't have any appreciation for History or for the time and energy he has spent delivering such a qualitatively rich course. The course itself would be perfect, if not for him, but what the heck is a perfect course anyway? Are you a perfect student? Go on, take his class!