HIST W3407

Weekly readings, discussion section, two 5-7 page papers, and a final.

Mandatory recitation (20%), Paper 1 (20%), Paper 2 (30%), Final exam (30%). Textbook, primary source book, plus 8 other books and additional online readings.

This was easily the best class I have taken thus far at Columbia. Professor Decker is an utterly brilliant man, and although he often speaks in a monotone, it is clear how passionate he is about the material, and if you actually listen, you will be astounded by his intellect and wit. His readings paint a very clear picture of all aspects of the last 50 years in America, and he especially focuses on political changes and their consequences. Discussion section has no weekly posts, and all in all the workload is quite manageable. I highly recommend this class to anyone remotely interested in American history.

I highly recommend this class. Professor Phillips is very well-organized and has created an always-interesting class (I almost never glanced at my watch). During each lecture, she engages students with multimedia: music, video, movie clips, speech recordings, cartoons, and more. The lectures form the core of the class, since there are really no canonical texts on such recent history. The readings, 10 books total, are almost all primary sources. She really does cover a wealth of history from 1960 to the present, focusing mostly on political, social, and cultural history, with forays into economics and the environment. I have one outstanding criticism. She portrayed JFK as a one-dimensional cold-warrior and LBJ as a demi-god. These characterizations ignore the totality of the facts, and I suspect they’re inspired by her personal distaste for the patrician Kennedy and identification with the Southern “man-of-the people” Johnson. I just hope that next time around, she gives more attention to JFK’s movement toward détente and federal intervention on behalf of civil rights, and also lay more of the blame for the Vietnam disaster on LBJ. Nevertheless, America Since 1960 was one of the best classes I’ve taken at Columbia.

Two pretty manageable 5-7pg papers. You get a choice of about 3-5 topics for each. No real assignments for discussion section other than having read the material when you present.

Fair amount of reading, two papers, final with essays (eight possibilities, five list on the exam, pick two)

I believe that this is Professor Decker's first time teaching a lecture course like this, so with that said, I cut him some slack. He seems like a funny and easygoing guy who is interested in what he's talking about. I was very interested in learning about recent history when I took this class, and granted, its a subject that isn't really tackled much in history departments. The class was a standard large lecture with a weekly discussion section. Each week, either a book or a set of printouts from Courseworks was assigned to be read for section. Sometimes I found that it was hard to take the time to get the reading done, especially with the thicker material. If you have enough time, the material is interesting enough, especially if you're into poli sci and recent interpretations of history in general. There are readings with liberal as well as conservative biases to give you a range of ideas of what's going on in a given decade. Section was pretty laid back as long as you did the readings. No weekly posts on courseworks (yay) and no response papers but you were expected to present or make a response now and then. The reason that it was pretty important to do the reading is that the two papers and final exam, as well as the section (everything that counts in your grade) is related to the books rather than the lectures. Therefore it made it seem kind of pointless to attend lectu…

Professor Phillips' "America Since 1960" history class single-handly revived my faith in liberalism and democracy. This is due to Phillips' excellent and interesting lectures, and the wonderful readings she picked for the class. It was evident from the very first day that Phillips loves history and wants to convey her excitement and interest to her students. I can't say enough good things about this class: before every lecture, Phillips played selections from songs and speeches that connected to the topics to be covered in her lectures; she opened the class up to discussion on several occassions and encouraged students and TAs to disagree with her and take her on; she was always able to meet outside of class during both office hours and other times; she extended the deadline of the final paper as per requests from the class's students. All in all a great class and a must for any history major, especially those specializing in America.