HNUH218C | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Richard Bell HNUH218C Expecting an A Anonymous 12/05/2025	Dr. Bell is one of if not the best lecturer I have had. His lectures are really informative and interesting, and he does a really good job making complicated things clear. You definitely have to show up and take notes, but as long as you are engaged you will get a lot out of it. The one issue I had is that there are not many grades in the class, so you have to do pretty well on everything, but he and his TA grade fairly so it isn't too bad. Dr. Bell and his TAs are all nice and very willing to answer any questions and I learned a ton of really interesting stuff without it feeling like an overwhelming amount of info. I highly recommend if you need an honors course
Richard Bell HNUH218C Expecting an A Anonymous 08/24/2025	Dr. Bell's courses are like walking into a TED Talk every day in the best way. His lectures are incredibly engaging, but you definitely need to keep up with note taking-- he goes quickly, and lectures aren't recorded. The major assignments and the final involve a lot of writing, but Dr. Bell and his TAs grade very fairly. HNUH218C felt like an upper-level course in terms of content specialization and Dr. Bell's expertise, but the workload is very reasonable. I would highly recommend!
Richard Bell HNUH218C Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/21/2025	This class is great if you're interested in history and Professor Bell makes it very engaging. The class was structured with 2 lectures a week and discussions of Fridays. The lectures were him talking and going though slides but I recommend going to class as most of the slides were just pictures, the real information was in what he was saying. Overall, the lectures were engaging as he put a real theatrical spin on it and would stop and ask/answer questions throughout. The downside to this class I would say is the amount of reading. There is a lot, too much especially if you already have hard classes you need to manage. Every week you'd get a thick packet with like 3-5 readings on things written from the 1700s, most of the time with 1700s fonts and spelling which was hard to get through. You can get by, by skimming though but just know enough for the assignments. You'd also discuss them during the discussions so if you didn't understand something you can get understanding there. Speaking of assignments there are two major essays for the class you have to write. You can ask Dr. Bell or the TA for help and have to use the readings and lecture notes to construct it. They were pretty easy and weren't graded harshly, that being said if you hadn't done your reading it becomes exponentially harder. About 25% of the grade was participation so just make sure to speak up in class and engage. The class is reading heavy but an enjoyable experience. There are probably easier honors courses to take but if you enjoy history, this is a good class to take.

Richard Bell
HNUH218C

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/05/2025

Dr. Bell is one of if not the best lecturer I have had. His lectures are really informative and interesting, and he does a really good job making complicated things clear. You definitely have to show up and take notes, but as long as you are engaged you will get a lot out of it. The one issue I had is that there are not many grades in the class, so you have to do pretty well on everything, but he and his TA grade fairly so it isn't too bad. Dr. Bell and his TAs are all nice and very willing to answer any questions and I learned a ton of really interesting stuff without it feeling like an overwhelming amount of info. I highly recommend if you need an honors course

Richard Bell
HNUH218C

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/24/2025

Dr. Bell's courses are like walking into a TED Talk every day in the best way. His lectures are incredibly engaging, but you definitely need to keep up with note taking-- he goes quickly, and lectures aren't recorded. The major assignments and the final involve a lot of writing, but Dr. Bell and his TAs grade very fairly. HNUH218C felt like an upper-level course in terms of content specialization and Dr. Bell's expertise, but the workload is very reasonable. I would highly recommend!

Richard Bell
HNUH218C

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/21/2025

This class is great if you're interested in history and Professor Bell makes it very engaging. The class was structured with 2 lectures a week and discussions of Fridays. The lectures were him talking and going though slides but I recommend going to class as most of the slides were just pictures, the real information was in what he was saying. Overall, the lectures were engaging as he put a real theatrical spin on it and would stop and ask/answer questions throughout. The downside to this class I would say is the amount of reading. There is a lot, too much especially if you already have hard classes you need to manage. Every week you'd get a thick packet with like 3-5 readings on things written from the 1700s, most of the time with 1700s fonts and spelling which was hard to get through. You can get by, by skimming though but just know enough for the assignments. You'd also discuss them during the discussions so if you didn't understand something you can get understanding there. Speaking of assignments there are two major essays for the class you have to write. You can ask Dr. Bell or the TA for help and have to use the readings and lecture notes to construct it. They were pretty easy and weren't graded harshly, that being said if you hadn't done your reading it becomes exponentially harder. About 25% of the grade was participation so just make sure to speak up in class and engage. The class is reading heavy but an enjoyable experience. There are probably easier honors courses to take but if you enjoy history, this is a good class to take.

Reviews for HNUH218C