The bare bones reason that I took this course was that I needed English Credits. It looked interesting to me, as I come from a history background and it seemed to relate to a subject that I have read about since childhood, but have not taken any specific courses on. Coming from a history background, I was not quite sure what to expect, given that coming into this course, I had not taken an English course since high school. What I got out of it was a different perspective of the British Empire than I think I would have gotten out of a history course or by simply reading an online article or some such. This course focused on looking at and analyzing notable works, in particular two works of fiction, that were written around the time that the British ruled India. Such an approach is different than say one in a history course, which usually focus on a chronological view or the analysis of facts and hard data. I think that the approach taken by this course was important, in that, by analyzing the historical works that we did, we were able to come to a more complete view on a specific time and place in history, specifically the British rule over India.