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The group project is a joke, but the Midterm and Final essays require some real reading and critical thought. Professor Kelley is a star professor. He's extremely clear in lecture and thinks outside of the box. I'm sad I only found him my last quarter, I would have liked to take more classes with him.

This is the second class I've taken with Prof. Kelley. His lectures are always super interesting, but honestly, you don't need to watch them to succeed in the class. Discussions are mandatory as is participation in section. Marina was my TA and I thought she was great. We had a small debate in section where we each had to speak at least twice. The final project was a policy proposal paper with a group in our section. My group happened to be awesome, but I know the experience varies with who you got matched with. The three books we needed were provided in PDF form. One of them you had to read for the debate, but the other two were not necessarily that important to keep up with. Overall, a super easy and informative class!

Grade Breakdown:

20% Attendance
25% Paper 1
25% Paper 2
30% Group Project

Attendance counts for 20% and it's pretty easy to secure - you can get friends to sign in for you (although I would recommend attending class). Kelley's lectures are funny and eye opening but they can get boring at times. He assigns a lot of reading material but you can get away without doing it if you pay attention in class. You'd have to pick out 2-3 readings to do before your essay submission though, as essays are based on lecture/readings only. Overall, the material he covers is very interesting and I'd recommend it to anyone committed to understanding the current socio, economic and political order. It's an easy GE if you put in a little effort, and the knowledge you gain is definitely rewarding.

Robin Kelly is a great professor. His lectures were concise and force you to think critically about the last 40 years in a way that I had never been offered before at a school. Recent history is a difficult thing to teach, but through a genuine understanding of neoliberalism, especially is a year such as 2020, it feels easier to understand why the US is the way it is. If you are an ardent supporter in the free market (ie. an economics major), I urge you to take this class. Have your beliefs challenged — think critically. Come to your own conclusions.

Taking History 12B with Kelley was honestly life-changing; I dropped accounting and decided to minor in history after taking this class. If you're interested in understanding the current political climate, I definitely recommend this class. There is a lot of reading but like another reviewer said, you can get away with skimming/skipping it if you pay attention in lecture. Most of the grading depends on the TA so make sure to communicate with your TA and find a TA, who doesn't grade too harshly.

One of the best classes I've ever taken! The reading is a little dense but the workload isn't too bad. There are two papers (first one was 5-7 pages, second was 4-5) that are graded by your TA and then a group project graded by Dr. Kelley. The papers aren't too difficult and he wants you to only use readings from the class, so stay on top of your readings! I just split the readings with one of my friends and we took good notes and just shared them, and I did well on the papers.

Workload aside, Dr. Kelley is passionate, engaging, and a really interesting person. I'd highly recommend taking a class with him. The subject material of this class is also really interesting and provides a unique perspective on the roots of inequality.

Took this class during COVID. Honestly this class is very eye-opening to me in my opinion. This class is about neoliberalism and many of the weekly readings (which can be pretty heavy not going to lie) will take on perspectives and experiences from populations and communities who were (and continue to be) affected by neoliberal policies. With that said, do consider that this class may alter how you view governments, class structure, economics, and global affairs because of the readings that talk about global trade, poverty, employment, racism, indigenous communities, working/low-income classes, debt, etc. All in all, you may alter your views and opinions on capitalism, socialism, or even communism during or after this class. (I am not going to bring up political lefts and rights cause no I will not bring up politics in this review)
The lectures are pre-recorded and asynchronous so you can watch lectures any time you want. The lectures can range from 40 minutes long to almost 2 hours, and Professor Kelley adds on additional information in lecture that happen in real-time (few examples: COVID-19 and healthcare, as well as the largest working class protest among farmers in India that happened in late 2020), meaning that Prof. Kelley does not recycle information every quarter he teaches this class, and that he is attentive and cares about the struggles that happen in the world and teaches/notifies us in lecture.
I never attended Prof. Kelley's office hours, however he was very understanding to the conditions we were in (obviously because of COVID) and altered the class a bit as the quarter went on. He even gave us an extension and reduced the readings in week 6/7 because of the presidential election.
The content/information of the class can go back to the Magna Carta and all the way to present day (more like 2008). From week 5/6 to week 10, the readings will focus more on readings from 1970s-present day tbh.
25% Essay 1
25% Essay 2
25% Group Project (your group is your discussion section that you are enrolled in)
25% Participation, usually in your discussion section. How your participation is graded is based on your TA, for example, attendance and/or weekly paragraphs about the readings.
Advice: for essays, while you are allowed to use readings AND lectures for your essays as evidence/support, TAs are more interested in seeing how you mainly use the readings to shape your argument. Doing all of the readings every week is not necessary, but you should read at least 70% of the readings by the end of the class for the essays.
I took this class as a GE, and I would say that this was a manageable GE, just do not do ALL of the readings and lecture the day before your discussion because that is just overload on you.
Again, this class focuses on the humanities/morals in economics, money, and institutions. I think this is a very important class to take if you want to understand how (historically) marginalized people have been disciplined by institutions guided by business and money and why we continue to see how working and low-income communities, as well as different communities of color are affected by these same institutions today.
I hope you enjoy this class! Good luck :)

This course was very eye-opening and inspiring! The materials were exceptionally interesting, and the Prof Kelley showed several films in class. The workload is heavy if you don't enjoy reading, as we had a good amount of articles to read and had to write 1-page weekly responses, but for larger assignments we only had two papers and a group project for the quarter. However, my TA was a hard grader, and I wish I could have gotten a higher score for the amount of time and work I put into this class. Maybe a different TA would make a lot of differences. Overall this class would be great if you want to learn more about Neoliberalism and the economic/political aspects of it.

Professor Kelley is wicked knowledgeable about history. What makes this class a little hard is the number of things you have to read and that we cover a lot of history in each lecture so sometimes the timeline gets confusing. Honestly, the midterm and final papers were pretty hard. It was one of those where they ask you like 12 things in the prompt and it can be tricky to organize.

There wasn't technically much work to turn in other than the midterm paper, final paper, and an easy group project. I learned a lot from this class and I would definitely take a class from him again. His voice is very soothing and he was very helpful and patient with questions and is always around for office hours to chat.