Andrew Delbanco

I took this class in fall 2012 but haven't had a chance to add my two cents about the class until now. Delbanco is a pretty great lecturer with a great handle on the material and very interesting points. My only complaints are that (1) he doesn't follow the syllabus really -- by the end of the semester we were pretty behind on what we were reading for lecture, so sometimes lecture/discussion plans didn't match up exactly and some things we had to speed through and (2) I took the class in NoCo 501. Anyone who's ever taken a class there knows that it's almost impossible to stay awake every class. There's something about that classroom (the desks? the stuffiness? the heat?) that makes learning so much harder in there. I took another class there in the spring and it was the same deal. Avoid that room if you can!! The reading list is great, I think the course title is pretty accurate. There's a lot of variety, from Puritan sermons to Emily Dickinson to Moby Dick/Melville's short stories. I really enjoyed the later works especially (Melville is great and there's a lot to think about there, plus Delbanco is an expert). I'll agree with the reviewer that you get what you put into it -- you don't have to do all the reading (I didn't, but wish I had had the time to) or attend lecture (no attendance). You do have to sign up for a discussion section (attendance mandatory). I guess maybe I…

Lehecka and Delbanco are the shit. This class is brilliant. Take it if you have ANY interest in education whatsoever. The reading is well chosen and thought provoking. That being said, the assignments are several hundred pages of reading a week. So, take this class when you've got some free time (ie not when you're in CC or Lit Hum). This seminar is worth it. Google Lehecka and Delbanco, and you'll be so appreciative that you get to be in a room with them and have one on one discussions with them. They are fascinating people. Course admittance is by interview, so Lehecka knows everyone in the seminar and hand picks people. Discussions are really interesting. Note: Lehecka and Delbanco are probably the slowest speakers on the whole campus - but they're also saying some deep shit. We also had Prezbo come talk to us about affirmative action. So boss. So glad that I had the opportunity to take this course. There's also a volunteering component of the course at the Double Discovery Center. It's 4 hours a week, so yes, time commitment. But if you care about improving education, then this will be a valuable resource. Plus the DDC is on campus and the students there are driven, so it's a pretty great experience.

Some students seem to look at American Studies as an easy way to coast through Columbia (and this was clear from the uncaring attitude of many in my section). This class puts this assumption firmly to rest. The class is incredible. Delbanco is extremely smart and it is clear that he has devoted much of his life to the texts we read in class, including the puritanical texts and many of Melville's works. More importantly, he is an extremely stimulating and engaging lecturer and, get this, he actually cares about his students. By the end of the semester, had learned many of our names (even those not in his section). I did come across some who found Delbanco to be pompous. This is simply not true. He is one of the most down-to-earth professors at Columbia. I did agree with the criticism that he is overly indulgent when it comes to some authors like Melville, for whom few others shared his passion. Don't take the advice of those below. This guy is great.

Delbanco makes me want to kill myself. His lectures are absolute torture. He is completely full of himself, rarely takes any imput from the class, and rambles on and on about nothing with his annoyingly monotone voice. He likes to hear himself talk and is overly pretentious. He is easily the worst professor I have ever had. I wanted to major in American Studies before I took this class, I'm now finding a different major.

Delbanco is an amazing teacher with a great mind and a dry wit. He expresses the points and insights you should be getting from the readings clearly and with a passion that is contagious. His class is very much a 'get out of it what you put into it' one, as there are relatively few graded works and no midterm. That makes it approachable for majors and non-majors alike. Unfortunately, you must sign up for the discussion session in class, so you may not actually get him for the weekly session (which is where attendance is really taken). Even if you sign up on SSOL the sessions are redone the first week.

Everyone at this school should take this class! It's jointly taught by Roger Lehecka and Andrew Delbanco, who are quite possibly the slowest talkers on this entire campus, but it's a small seminar, the readings are fascinating, and the service componant really enhances everything. I'm not sure why Delbanco actually teaches anything, because Lehecka is the real authority, but having both of them there gives insightful and sometimes differing views. Plus Lehecka is this cute old man, but when you talk to him, you realize that he's brilliant, that he founded the Double Discovery Center when he was a student here, and that he's one of the most renowned educators in the country. Kind of amazing, actually. If you're interested in education AT ALL, take this course!

I'm not quite sure how anyone could be inspired by his 100% stereotypical Ivy demeanor (he is such a stereotypical and arrogant intellectual that its funny really) but he does present the often less than exciting material in an interesting light. The class is worth taking as an English major, as Delbanco does a fine job of giving a sense of the beginnings of the American literary tradtion (and its too easy to overlook the Puritans and the writing of the Founding Fathers as an English major). I still don't understand how he can justify putting James Fenimore Cooper's Deerslayer and Charlotte Temple on the reading list while not including a thing from Edgar Allen Poe. Also, I'm not sure what the point is to devoting a lecture and a half to Moby Dick when he doesn't even assign it. A class with both postive and negatives... but, again, worthwhile overall... non-English majors should approach with caution.

Impossible reading lists, 15-20 pages worth of written essays/responses and a mandatory discussion section.

Notice a pattern in CULPA reviews: the more admired the professor is by the world, the more likely a certain kind of intimidated student scents his being "full of himself". Gee, that's funny. Delbanco hasn't bothered to update his American Studies bio in 3 years. It lacks all his latest honors and publications. Among countless honors one notices: "In 2001, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and named by Time Magazine as "America's Best Social Critic." If he was in rock he'd be Billy Joe Armstrong. If he lacked self esteem he'd be nuts. If being around a star intimidates you, why did you come to Columbia? Go to CCNY, and save your parents' money. If you think anybody slightly more dignified than Carter at the Grammies is "pompous" or "Ivy" then leave the Ivy. Those sincerely interested in Delbanco's goals as teacher should read the deservedly famous NY Review of Books article: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/318 Written when English depts were drowning in decon, it says, "full-scale revival will come only when English professors recommit themselves to slaking the human craving for contact with works of art that somehow register one's own longings and yet exceed what one has been able to articulate by and for oneself. This is among the indispensable experiences of the fulfilled life, and the English department will survive—if on a smaller scale…

Heavy reading, 3 super easy papers (ie talk about your feelings and reference papers), a few meetings with Lehecka (which is great - he offers career advice and actually cares about you)