Barbara Fields

The lecturing in this class is absolutely legendary. Professor Field's delivery and writing is unmatched, with each day covering massive intellectual and historical ground. Each lecture is performed without stopping, with questions at the end (expect a slightly sore wrist, analog note takers). Occasionally the readings and the lecture would be redundant, but I still felt it helpful to do all the readings.

Professor Fields is one of the most incredible professors that Columbia has to offer. Although initially intimidating, she is a warm spirit that is truly interested in cultivating the next generation of future historians. While she does read from a sheet during lecture, her insights are so fascinating and particular that I never felt bored. With that said, Professor Fields expects a great deal from her students, particularly illustrated in her decision to assign on average 200 pages of reading a week. You are also expected to complete reading journals accompanying each of the texts and should be incredibly familiar with not the only major themes of the texts, but particular details. This is all made easier by the fact that Professor Fields has the most amazing TAs on campus. My TA was Scot McFarlane, and he not only had an incredible grasp on the material but also ensured that everyone felt encouraged to participate in discussion by not only having us discuss the material all together but regularly splitting us into small groups of 2-3 to tackle particularly difficult topics. Our discussion section became one of my favorite parts of the week. The TAs (Scot and Lindsey) also held two review sessions before both the midterm and final which I highly recommend attending as they give you a clear understanding of what they personally are expecting, and help clear up questions on IDs…

Professor Fields does have her idiosyncrasies. She does not use email, she does not collect any written work except your final paper proposal until the last day of class, she does care about the formatting of footnotes, and she will give you a 12 page document of her written style and word usage pet peeves. She will also treat you with more respect in the classroom (which entails challenging you to really substantiate your assertions and back up your reasoning) than almost any other professor I have had. Fields is initially intimidating, but incredibly kind (go to her office hours) and a brilliant and accomplished scholar. Disregard the negative reviews. If you are prepared to work hard and to be taken seriously, take this class.

The problem with Professor Fiedls is not whether or not she teaches well. it is an established fact that she is a magnificent historian with immense talent. What concerns us students is whether a teacher can inspire you, can spawn an interest, and can cultivate your respect for the subject. While Professor Fields may teach you the mechanics of history, she will revulse you from the art and significance of history. Nagging students about footnotes and innundating them with undoable workloads will only revulse students from the subject. While Professor Fields may be hailed as a great historian, she utterly fails to be anywhere near a great teacher.

History of the South was a really interesting class. It gave me a view of the South that I'd never seen before, and Professor Fields definitely made an effort to look at all sides of a lot of issues--not just spinning the popular interpretation, as many professors do, but really positing her own deeply thought-out conclusions about things. She was a pretty intimidating woman, though, and didn't really invite people to question her interpretations or to participate in any sort of discussion. The readings were generally very long, but usually fascinating. Discussing them in section was usually one of my favorite parts of the week, especially because my TA, Lindsey, was THE best TA I've ever had or will ever have. Lindsey knew the texts inside and out and really knew how to explain the complicated issues that Professor Fields didn't get into in class. She also required us to turn in multiple stages of our final paper ahead of time, which made me much more time-conscious on the paper and made for a much better paper in the end. Lindsey's line edits on our papers were also priceless.

By far the best professor I've had at Columbia. If it weren't for this class, which, admittedly, I stumbled into during my sophomore spring and almost dropped after the first lecture, I wouldn't have decided to major in history and would have no idea what to do with my life. A Marxist of the old-fashioned sort that we don't see too often these days, Fields is explicit in her approach to history. I learned in her course what type of distinctions count as historically meaningful, what particular features of the past count as explanations rather than things to be explained, and how to begin to distinguish a particular society at a particular time from any other at multiple levels of analysis (economic, political, ideological, artistic, etc.). She is extremely attentive to detail, and insists on proper use of terminology (expect to be corrected on things you've never even thought of), especially concerning race. Having never previously questioned the validity of the concept of race, her lectures on the subject were particularly revealing for me. I could go on, but you can spare yourself my gushing if you simply TAKE HER CLASS. If you're a junior or a senior looking to find those classes you missed out on before you started digging into your major, this is one of them. If you're a freshman or a sophomore still figuring out what you want to study, take this class and the decision sh…

Professor Fields is one of the most inspiring and challenging professors I have had at Columbia. She takes a historical problem or question, measures its precise dimensions, and then deftly slices it open to make visible its structure. In other words, her analyses are incisive and highly enlightening. She is relentlessly logical, and demands a high level of thought and writing from her students. This can seem like a heavy load to bear as a student, but it's quite worth it. No professor has ever given me as much thoughtful feedback on my papers as Prof. Fields.

Some of the negative comments made in earlier reviews of Professor Fields are really misleading. If you are willing to put effort into the class and keep up with the heavy workload, taking a class with Professor Fields will be a very rewarding experience. She is extremely intelligent and her comments constantly challenged me to reinterpret and reconsider the works that we read in class. She is very warm and accessible during her office hours and will be happy to give you personal attention and detailed comments on your work. Because she has high standards and is a demanding professor, I found myself becoming much more engaged with the reading and the papers, and ultimately found the experience far more satisfying than many other classes I have taken. Her seminar is one of the best classes that the history department has to offer.

This course covers the creation of Race, the history of the South, and how the American dream was a crock for African-Americans (as well as most white Americans). Fields is very friendly, although she can appear and come off to be quite intimidating. Her delivery is bland and dry, but the information is very interesting. I recommend this course to any aspiring United States history majors, or anyone interested in learning about the creation of race.. and of the history of the South and its significance for the United States. Fields is definitely to the LEFT, politically -- she's not a wishy washy liberal. She's pretty left and pretty vocal, but it takes time to get it out of her. She's also (the only?) African american female tenured professor in the history department, and indeed at Columbia university. She's considered to be one of THE authorities in her field, and she's quite prominent and reputable. She's quite intimidating, but it's worth getting over the fear because you can learn alot from her. She certainly change many points of view I held prior to meeting her.

All the bad reviews were clearly written by one person because this woman is one of the kindest most accommodating Professors at Columbia. Kindness, however, should not be mistaken for intellectual coasting -- she is a very opinionated and intelligent and she will tell you when you are being an idiot. She is very incisive in her historical analysis and made me look at history from a new perspective, but that being said, I can't call her one of the greats of the History department. There are some lectures that are fascinating in which she makes a decisive and insightful point about Southern history. But, at other times, it feels like I'm listening to the audio book of a high school text book, her just listing important events and dates. All in all, you'll learn a lot and her lecture and article on Race and Ideology is a must. She's really good, but not great.