Herbert Sloan

Professor Sloan's class was okay, but I do not recommend it if you are not extremely interested in the subject matter. The lectures can be a bit dry and drag on, and sometimes turn into rants or go into off-topic subjects. Although there are no prerequisites for this class, I recommend having a decent background in American history since there is a lot of information he assumes you already know, and I feel I would have struggled if I had not had a good background. There is usually quite a bit of reading for each class, and you have to buy around 8 books for the class. Preparation for exams is mostly rote memorization work. Overall if you have nothing else you need to take and you are interested in Constitutional law then take this class, but for me, although I enjoyed the subject matter, it was not the most useful use of my time.

Professor Sloan knows so much, and that is apparent from his lectures. That having been said, he can be boring and a bit dry, and lectures can tend to drag on a bit. There were definitely times I feel asleep in lecture. You have a textbook, which I found was good because it gave the background to what Sloan would discuss in lectures, but you could really get by without reading it and just going to lectures and taking notes -- for the final, Sloan gives you a list of terms that you will have to know, which do a good job of encompassing everything covered in lectures. He would pick specific overarching themes of the period, and spent several lectures over the course of the semester on historiography, which I found was interesting, but, again, was a bit dry. You also have to read six other books over the course of the semester, some of which are interesting, and some of which are boring, useless, and did not contribute anything to my knowledge of American History (Robert Cole's World, I'm looking at you). There is also weekly mandatory discussion sections. My TA, Eric, was okay, and did a good job of facilitating conversation about the texts we were reading. Grading is done randomly, so you can have a TA or Professor Sloan grading your paper and your final, making grading a bit of a mixed bag -- you win some, you lose some. You also don't know which one is grading, which makes it…

Professor Sloan is one of, if not the most, boring professors I've ever had. Classes turned into hour-long rants. Everyone stopped paying attention very quickly. We rarely discussed the books, but rather Professor Sloan explained in mind numbing detail whatever happened to be on his mind that day. Were the conversation to turn to a debate, he would patronize the class. Were you to disagree with him, he'd correct your grammar instead of responding to any point you may have had. He made it clear he had no interest in getting to know us and his dislike for the class itself. The essays were never returned in a timely manner, making it next to impossible to improve. All notes on the papers were corrections to grammatical mistakes. He rarely, if ever, made comments on the content of the essay. It made it pretty easy to do well, but frustrating to watch hard work go unappreciated. He can be really nice, and at times funny, but all in all, this was not a fun class to take.

I took the Americas I with Sloan and had an awful experience. Maybe he was having on off semester, but most of the people in the class (there were only 16, and I got the opinion of at least 5 people) really did not enjoy the class and it was sometimes even degrading being in his seminar. He would interrupt people and criticize them really harshly when they talked. I remember in the beginning of the class everyone would raise their hand when he asked a question, but by the middle of the semester when he would ask a question no one would speak for a long time because they were afraid of getting shot down. I remember once when someone brought up the idea of academic freedom in the classroom he yelled "Academic freedom means I get to teach what I want!!" and totally shot her down. This was one example of many. Usually I am really hesitant to criticize professors but this experience was just too awful not to share.

This class was incredibly interesting and a lot of fun. I took it the first time it was taught, and so, while it was a lecture, only 7 people were in the class, and it felt like a seminar. This may also be due to the HUGE amount of reading that Sloan assigns. I learned so much from this class, and liked Sloan a lot, he makes many slightly off-color but amusing remarks and is easily sidetracked onto almost any topic. He encourages class participation, and isn't above jumping into the fray in a particularly heated debate. Although, no matter how cool he is in class, he'll try to pretend he doesn't know you if he sees you outside, which is a bit weird.

Prof. Sloan is a decent teacher, except for the fact that he has the TAs grade everything, which makes the grades pretty biased and unfair. Some of his lectures are more interesting than others, but he is absolutely knowledgeable on the subject. You could definitely skip the lectures and skim the books and still get by.

At first I was pissed that I wasn't put it Mark Carnes' reacting section, becasue I had heard such good things about him. On the first day of class, I started to feel really pessimistic about the class because Sloan was acting incredibly arrogant, acting as though we should all be in awe of the fact hat he had written the History SAT II. That being said, as the semester went on, things weren't bad at all. For the most part the teacher plays an extremely minimal role in the class - just sits in the back and lets the students play the games (that's the way the course was designed), so it really doesn't make a difference if you like him or not. Plus, he's turned out to be nicer than we all initially thought. He's pretty lenient with papers and such, but in terms of grading, it's hard to say, because I haven't gotten any grades back yet.

Maybe I was sitting in a different class with the others who gave a review for this class Spring 2003. If anything Sloan was self-deprecating constantly referring to other scholars and their works. This man is a scholar and an engaging, enthusiastic, funny lecturer. He is filled with information that all relates to his lectures. This is my third year at Columbia and he is the best Professor I have had-- and I have taken other history classes including ones by Jackson and Brinkley. Sloan admits he is a late grader but had the midterms back in time the drop and pass/fail option. I look forward to taking another class with him. Don't be put off by his erudition-he is approachable and always willing to help his students. He personally conducts an evening review session before the final. The entire class gave this man thundering applause when he concluded his last lecture Don't leave Columbia without taking at least one class with him

Herbert Sloan is the nerd's professor. If you love the Constitution, US History, or just learning, you will love this adorably grumpy fount of knowledge for the amazing enthusiasm and depth of understanding he brings into the classroom. If you want an easy ride or simple lecture, stay away- he speaks with the utmost clarity and precision but would quite understandably be horribly boring to anyone not caught up in the subject matter. Go the first day- and let your first impression stand.

Sloan is awesome. He sits down a few minutes before class and waits for someone to bring up some small talk until he actually begins his lecture. I would always throw out current events and enjoy his cynical yet objective-ish response. As a pretty conservative person I'm always weary of the position professors will take when re-telling history, but he usually steered clear of politics. The readings were alright, and I skimmed every single book assigned. The lectures were interesting because he was a never ending pool of facts. When he would ask a question and someone got it wrong, he would yell "NO", but make it funny-- it was never intimidating to have the wrong answer, and actually made class more fun because his response was so hilarious. Good intro history class. If you put in the time you can learn a lot of dates and facts.