This class is a LOT of reading and paper writing. 15-20 page research paper in addition to midterm and final papers. However, Lynch is awesome and really helpful. He knows a lot about the subject but be prepared to take quick notes on his rambles. He doesn't grade too harshly but you need to be really interested in the topic for this class.

Awesome class! I was the only non-Foreign Affairs major in the class but Lynch kept all the information really interesting and accessible. Lots of reading, but I didn't do all of it, it's basically impossible to keep up with. There's a open book, open note midterm, a term paper, and a take-home final exam.

Professor Lynch is one of my favorite professors at UVA and I highly recommend this course if you are an upperclassmen in order to tie together everything you have learned in politics classes over the years.

Great class, I've learned a lot.

I took this class over the summer as well. Lynch is a fantastic lecturer and very engaging. He has an abundance of personal anecdotes and does impressions which are pretty funny. From the perspective of someone who tries to avoid office hours, I can tell you that Lynch is very approachable. Like the other reviewer said, you need to write 3 papers - one of which ties readings/lecture to a relevant movie. In the end, I did very well in this class when I didn't necessarily expect to. Although the reading can be slightly burdensome, I would highly recommend this class to anyone even considering it.

Professor Lynch is an amazing and engaging lecturer. I took this course over the summer, so the reading felt particularly heavy and was difficult to keep up with but was still very interesting. The grade consisted of three 5-page papers and an optional extra credit essay - I feel that for a 400 level class, they were graded rather generously. I received B+/A- on all of 3 of my essays and this was without getting through every reading assigned. One paper was even based on a movie we watched during class. I ended up getting the lower end of the grade, but still very satisfied with the class!