Robert Mccaughey

Robert McCaughey seems like a very interesting professor, but unfortunately that does not come through in his class. For every major text that we speed through, you have to write an essay and a critique in which he obsesses over your essay title. I found all of our texts really interesting (a word that he insists you do not use) and the essays that were written was thought-provoking and a perfect set-up to an engaging class discussions. But to my disappointment, he would stifle discussion when we got to class. I am sure that he would be a great history professor, but in my experience as a seminar professor, he is very dry. My class was full of passionate, avid readers but every class was very quiet after the first few classes.

These reviews are incredibly untruthful. My class is full of American Studies majors who had read the fabulous reviews here and were EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED. The "Captain," while a nice guy, is a dull lecturer and is unclear when communicating important vs. superfluous information. The exams are based on information that is not covered in class nor on the readings, and they take many days to prepare for. He grades fairly, but be warned that you will have panic attacks every time he hands out a study guide.

Very entertaining! Students and McCaughey are not shy to share stories, laugh, and have a good time :) Relaxed environment but you must be willing to work in groups. Two of the three projects are group websites where every member gets the same grade... I was fine because my group was good but I can't even imagine if my group members were slackers! He assigns the groups the first day of class so it's kind of hit or miss.

A great professor (and one who puts his lecture notes on courseworks) and a fantastic lecturer, Professor McCaughey makes a survey history course a fun (and often funny) and engaging class. I would take him again for sure (even if he does talk about boats a lot).

While this period in history is interesting Professor McCaughey chose to discuss what was interesting to him when he strayed from the main historical events (i.e. various forms of sailboats, the character of various presidents' wives, the evolution of Columbia University, etc.) His lectures were fairly interesting, but the workload for this class was ridiculous when you take into consideration that it is an introductory course. He posted all of his lecture notes online so if you missed class you could get them. The syllabus had no deadlines for the massive amount of reading; it just stipulated that a certain amount should be completed by each test. The tests were difficult with identifications, that the McCaughey himself said were intended to "trick the student", a section where a quote was given from a primary document and you were asked to identify who wrote, its title, and its date, as well as essays. The required discussion sections with TA's were somewhat trivial and didn't further my knowledge in the class. My TA made you post questions and responses each week we had section for the various supplemental novels we were required to read. If you want the workload of an upper level history course then take McCaughey. Overall his likeable and interesting personality doesnÂ’t outweigh the demand of the class.

Prof. McCaughey has a very loose lecture style, which can be disconcerting for people who like a systematic approach to the material. Class time in this seminar consists largely of presentations by individuals, watches (to get in the maritime spirit, the class is divided into three watches, groups that work together on projects for the duration of the semester), or guests. Each watch makes three presentations and each person in the class makes an individual presentation. Prof. McCaughey likes to make use of technology, so it's strongly recommended that the presentations be in website format. This can be daunting, but it doesn't require anything you can't do with Microsoft FrontPage. Typically, a watch or individual makes a presentation at the beginning of class, and we spend most of the rest of the class critiquing it. Prof. McCaughey occassionally prepared talks on various aspects of maritime history and terminology. The class wasn't very strong on the "history" part of its title. A general grasp of American history helps but isn't a prerequisite. Participation is critical if you want a good grade in the class. That means raising your hand frequently, and Prof. McCaughey will call on you if you don't. Say something maybe once every ten minutes. Take initiative in your watch as well, because the watch leaders (first mates) will report back to Prof. McCaughey on who is being he…

I only have really good things to say about this class. Prof. McCaughey is an extremely engaging professor. He is well versed, well prepared, and quite funny. While the info can at times be a little dry - which in my opinion it was with Columbia's early history, by the end of the semester, you don't want to put down McCaughey's book, Stand Columbia. This is a class for people just a little curious about the place they're going to be spending 4 years, people wanting to fulfil a history requirement as painlessly as possible, as well as hardcore history majors (and there were quite a few in the class). Just a warning, there wasn't quite enough about Barnard to satisfy me - although that is my opinion as a Barnard student who wanted to hear more about the school she goes to. But at the same time, Barnard did get more attention than other affilite institutions, so i suppose I'll just have to take what I can get. :)

Prof. McCaughey is an excellent teacher. He grades his papers rather easily and his tests are not too hard. He is very knowledgeable of the material and has a class website and CUBoard that will answer any question a student may have. He also provides an outline of his lectures on his website so you don't have to go to class. But I would highly recommend attending if you have an intrest in History b/c his lectures are excellent.

This class is an overload. In total I think we wrote 11-12 papers this semester. Half of which are 3-4 pages and on the content of a section of the book we're covering. The other half are 2 pages long and are critiques of the aforementioned papers. We went through books like the Odyssey in three 1 hr 15 min classes. The material you cover is very superficial and I found myself not even caring about the quality of my essays since he grades all papers pretty much 87%-93%.

McCaughey is the best -- intelligent, funny, and very dedicated to making the seminar a success. Not only did he arrange for Barnard to pay for us to go yachting on the Hudson, but he really made an effort to explain grading and have individual projects rather than all group projects. Be polite [don't fool around on your computer all class long], participate in seminar discussion, and in turn he will be good to you. I seriously wish this man was my dad/grandfather!