I thought the class was alright. Professor Derby's lectures were somewhat disorganized and occasionally hard to follow, but she and the TA Becca were helpful in clarifying when you ask questions. The class was mostly based on two papers and discussion posts in the Slack. The papers weren't graded too harshly and Becca was helpful if you wanted feedback on your work. The textbooks are necessary for the papers, but you don't need to read everything, just enough to include the material for the topic you're writing about. I definitely learned a lot of new and interesting information overall, despite the disorganization.

I'm not 100% clear on this bc the grading was revised as we went, but I think the main criteria for the course were 2 papers, a 5 question map quiz, and posting in the Slack group.
There's a midterm and final paper which were graded by the TA, and I thought the grading wasn't too hard. Basically you don't have to do all of the reading or attend every single lecture, although it's interesting to do it if the material interests you. Just do enough to get the sources/information you need for the papers. Specifically I would avoid buying the short novels until you know for sure whether you'll need them, bc you can always just use different readings as your main material. The textbooks and readings are mostly posted on CCLE whenever possible, so you can avoid most of the costs.
Professor Derby was kind of disorganized with the class structure and lectures, but it's clear that she loves what she studies and likes to share it with her students.
One thing to note is that the class is largely through a leftist political lens which you might enjoy or hate. Overall I'd say it's a good class to get your History GE done :)

Overall, Derby's lectures could have been a little more clear. It was a little confusing sometimes, but overall manageable. I thought this class did a great job with the discussion sections and having the students facilitate. The only grades were a map quiz, participation, slack posts, and 2 essays. The TA (Becca) was wonderful and was reachable whenever I needed help. The course material is also very interesting. I definitely would recommend this class.