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.

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 :)

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.

I took this class as an "easy GE" and did not regret one thing. The teachers and TA's are truly there to help you throughout this class. As my lectures were posted all online, I was able to go through the class at my own pace, while given the chance to ask questions during live discussion. I enjoyed discussion because it was more a class discussion rather than another lecture, allowing everyone to communicate with one another about the new topic. Definitely take this class if you are interested in the topic or want a class that will fit nicely within your busy schedule.

Wow, I really loved this course. The workload is NOT bad at all and there is an absence of quizzes and tests. There are only essays, which really worked for me as someone who likes writing. Perhaps if you don't, look elsewhere but the writing is not too demanding at all and I felt that my TA graded fairly. Professor Kelley is also brilliant and passionate about what he teaches, which makes the lectures interesting. I found myself super engaged when listening to them, which is great especially considering the online aspect of it.

I am not a history person nor a reading person but I passed this class with an A after almost barely reading the books. This was the only class that required participation during discussion so that felt uncomfortable, but overall Javier (my TA) was extremely knowledgeable and helpful as well.
What really killed me for this class was that Professor Kelley mentioned we will be using one of the book that we read as a final project in the syllabus and on week 9, he completely changed that to a group essay that did not even necessarily need the book. It was tough having one week to come up with a 9 page-ish essay with people you barely or did not even talk to at all during discussion without having enough clarity on what the final prompt wants from us.
However, I still did pass with an A so I guess I have to say this class was easy compared to the work I put in.

This class was super chill. For my TA we really only had to participate in discussion plus the midterm/final papers and some notes we had to take for the book discussion. I spent like no time on this class apart from the readings and got an easy A. Basically my advice would be: participate 2-3 times in discussion, spend some time on the essays and you'll get an A. I didn't have much interaction with Professor Kelley, but he was well organized and very reasonable with the assignments. Good class.

This class was amazing. I loved Mr. Kelley. His lectures were engaging, funny, and informational. Easy class, definitely a good GE. I would 100% take it again and will be looking to take more of his classes in the future. A lot of reading but you can get away with skipping some, and the assigned book was pretty good. The only completely required, turned in assignments are the midterm 8 page essay which, really when you consider that it's basically the only assignment was not too bad and you have a week to do it (I actually enjoyed that assignment), a group project where you make a website, and a group paper as the final. Basically if you do most of the readings you'll be fine for the essays and discussion section, and most of the readings are interesting. Great class highly recommend.

It isn't too hard to get an A in this class, but the fact that lectures were long and the reading was boring destroyed any interest I had.

I loved this class and Prof. Kelley! This class is super interesting and provides a great look into neoliberalism and I learned a ton of stuff I didn't know before. Even if you disagree with Kelley's ideology (he is very leftist), you will still get a lot out of this class. The class isn't too difficult. The readings can be a bit heavy and tough at times, but as long as you participate a bit in discussion you'll be okay. And there are two papers, graded pretty easily, and a group project with your section at the end. As long as you put a decent amount of work in and get through most of the readings you should be okay with this class. It may be a bit much for a history GE for non-history majors, but if you are a history pre-major looking for lower-divisions classes I'd definitely recommend this one.