While the class material is interesting, I think Professor Bell didn't make the topic very engaging or fun. He has a dry, monotone, and rambling lecture style that made it hard to pay attention. Nor do I think his lectures added much to the core material of the class- his rural English background and research into Brazil and Spanish America are mentioned quite a bit in class, but his rambling and meandering way of speaking made it difficult to convey the weight, magnitude, historical context, and human impact of his examples.

He posts his lecture notes instead of slides, gives easy true/false exams for the midterm and final, and the readings are fairly light, with an open-ended final essay mostly managed by the TA- this is an easy class to pass, but not a fun one to pass. I feel like I would've gotten about the same amount of information from the class if I read "A New Green History of the World" by Clive Ponting, which is what most of the course material is based on. Glass half full, this class gives you the foundation for analyzing how societies have shaped and been shaped by modes of subsistence, and gives you the structure to do your own research on a topic you're interested in for your final essay.