History 12B was an extremely easy GE--I highly suggest it. But be fair warned if you have no interest in politics, you will be bored with the course material. Professor Kelley was a nice professor and was occasionally funny in class.

Your class grade is complied from four things:
- you have 2 papers (One around midterms and the other during the last week)
-a final group project with you whole discussion(relatively easy didn't require too much input of effort...hopefully TA is a good facilitator)Due the second to last week
-Attendance to you DISCUSSION, Not Class. Professor Kelley does not take any type of attendance for lectures so you can skip some here and there. But make sure to attend you discussions.

Lectures:
Professor Kelley goes off slides, but he adds onto them--doesn't read word for word
Rarely post the slides online; occasionally he will and he'll mention in class that he will. Most of the time the slides were not posted--so take notes.
Not pod-casted.

Notes:
Highly recommend you take notes you will need them for you papers

Reading:
-Professor Kelley gives a lot of reading, I did none of it--got an A in the class.
-You are required two books you can find pdf's online so you don't have to but them.
-The making of global captialism: https://the-eye.eu/public/concen.org/Criticism%20of%20Capitalism%20and%20Globalization%20-%20Collection%2010/Panitch%20%26%20Gindin%20-%20The%20Making%20of%20Global%20Capitalism%3B%20the%20Political%20Economy%20of%20American%20Empire%20%282012%29.pdf
-we're all fast food workers now: https://andrewchernoff.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/we_are_all_fast-food_workers_now_by_annelise_orlec.pdf

Papers:
The two papers are:
- 5-7 pages
-you can not use outside sources(you must use notes from lecture or from the assigned readings)
-grades depend on your TA, so hopefully they grade easy, if not make good relationship with them

While Professor Kelley assigns a lot of reading and gives dense lectures, there are no tests, so memorization of material isn't necessary. I would recommend taking notes only on what is interesting or seems important, as this will help when writing the mid-term and final papers. The group project (your group is your entire discussion section) was a quite a mess, but everything worked out well in the end.

Selling "We Are All Fast-Food Workers Now" for $10. Brand new. Call or text **********

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!

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.