Professor is a great guy, very intelligent and well spoken. Our discussions consisted of weekly in person write-ups based off lecture and reading materials. Defo not low effort, but not impossible + the subject material is very interesting. Only thing I didnt love was the end of quarter group project... had to work and submit along with your entire discussion section. Not great.

I came into this class with an open mind, despite knowing that I would disagree with nearly everything the professor had to say, but I quickly realized that the content was NEVER INTENDED to be presented in a neutral format that allowed for any kind of critical thinking. Rather, the lectures were personal rants and clearly directed towards other far-left extremists like Kelley himself.

The structure of this class was an absolute joke. Over the ten weeks, I don’t know if the slides were ever completed in time for class. It didn’t matter much because there seemed to be no purpose to attend class other than to be preached to about Kelley’s communist agenda. Half of our grade consisted of written assignments in discussions which we never got any feedback or grade on until we received our final grade on myucla. I actually had to email the TA every week to ask him to give me my grade to get any sense of how I was doing in the class.

Beyond the actual class, I was (and still am) absolutely APPALLED by Professor Kelley’s behavior in lectures. He is the most unprofessional, bigoted, blatantly racist professor I have ever had. Every single lecture there was at least one backhanded jab directed at Republicans and white people, whom I suppose he assumed weren’t present in his class of very obedient cult followers. My favorite “joke” was when he shielded his head with his hands and said “when I’m walking down the street, when I see white people coming to me, I’m like terrorists? Terrorists?” He then proceeded to add that he does trust white people because he has a lot of white friends. “But they’re mostly communists and stuff, so they’re cool. Anarchists as well.” (These were his exact words taken from the lecture recording). Note, this is coming from a black man. If he was a white man talking about black people in this way he would have been fired long long ago. Instead, he gets paid over $500,000 a year (this is public record) to stand on his soapbox and talk like this.

All quarter long he continued to insert these little “jokes” into his rants and then backpedal to make them seem a little less insulting. And it wasn’t just white people and Republicans, he also insulted his entire family on several occasions. As a man who clearly places himself on a very high moral pedestal, I was shocked by how he spoke about his own family. I would love to know if they know the kinds of things he says about them when they’re not around. Pretty despicable if you ask me.

I am fully aware that universities are liberal institutions and I was very prepared for this class to anger me to some extent. Still, this class went so far beyond left-leaning rhetoric. I honestly don’t know how this man still has a job. I suppose it all comes down to the fact that only racism towards ethnic minorities will ever be punished. And if I ever addressed my problems with this class to anyone, I’m pretty sure they’d call me racist just for expecting the same standard of respect for everyone.

Do not listen to earlier reviews on this class as he has changed the structure of the class a lot. While his lectures are engaging and has definitely opened my worldview to real issues caused by corporations and billionaires in society, the class is definitely very politically aligned towards the left. Our graded assignments were 5 in-discussion essays every other week and each essay was worth 10% of our grade. The essays were also timed and harshly graded. The class was interesting and not too hard, but definitely not as easy as an A as it has been.

Where do I begin (I know its cliche), Professor Kelley is a smart and knowledgeable guy, but he is an awful professor. Not only is he severely underprepared for every single lecture (he often times works on his presentation slides 5 minutes before class and admits it), but he does not promote any kind of logistical and interpretative thinking whatsoever. He simply tells you what to think, and provides information about it. He is also a self proclaimed Communist—which isn't inherently wrong, everyone has the right to believe in what they choose, however he frames his lectures to look at history through a purely communist infatuated lens. Kelley wants you to think like a Marxist.

For very heavy political and economic issues that have a variety of nuance to it, Kelly doesn't ever mention the capitalist or conservative viewpoints of these problems in a fair way. So what ends up happening is that a deep, ultra liberal echo chamber is created inside the classroom where nobody is able to think for themselves. As a professor he should not have the right to push political ideologies onto his students; instead, he should remain neutral and cover both sides of history. He even goes to the extent of TELLING STUDENTS, to go support anti-ice raids and has openly said in lecture that trump should go f#*^@ himself.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as Kellys assignment system is also TERRIBLY flawed. He often signs 200 page readings in a single week where when I'm telling you nobody reads them, nobody reads them. Why? Because there is absolutely no academic incentive to read them. You can easily pass this class by just citing notes from lectures and doing his biweekly quizzes which are the only kind of form of grading assignment besides attendance and the end of the quarter project. And let me tell you, the bi-weekly quiz system is also INCREDIBLY flawed because the quizzes only test material from the week prior. Which means you never have to attend Kellys lectures the week of a quiz since none of that material will ever be tested. Again, this is still just the tip of the ice-berg since Kelly's lectures are again...TERRIBLE and incredibly flawed again. For one he does not define political terms and expects his student to already know the ins and outs of heavy politics. I understand this is not an introductory history course but he often goes on tangents where he loses the majority of the class. It has gotten so bad that the classroom is nearly empty. Out of the 200 and something students that are enrolled, only around 50 actually attend these lectures. And why would you? Kelley goes through his slides incredibly fast and talks and presents in a way that is not note taker friendly. He doesn't even take breaks to have students ask questions until the very end of the lecture when most have probably already forgotten their question by the end of it.

But by far the biggest and possibly scariest problem about this class has to be the professors rating on bruin walk. Why is he at a 4.2? My biggest hypothesis is that he has a high rating because people align with his political ideology. Which really goes to show what has happened to some of us. Some have become so brainwashed that we cannot see a horrible, irresponsible, and unprofessional teacher, even if its right in front of us.

LOVE this class and LOVE this professor. Best class at UCLA by far. highly highly recommend.

By far my favorite class I've taken throughout the entire year. Prof Kelley delivers his lectures in a manner where you usually have to pay attention because certain comments or opinions are not necessarily reflected on the PPT (as expected). Information and generally-hard concepts are presented in a super digestible manner. This class has a flight resonance with economic theory (you do not need prior knowledge whatsoever) and is extremely relevant to the current political state of our world. This class behaves as an exposé of everything-political from big corporations to major political figures. Super eye-opening, no final just a take-home essay, no homework only 3 assignments for the entire quarter and an appreciation for students that participate during discussions. My TA was Annie Powers, amazing teacher and super friendly!

This class was super easy and the Professor is very nice about rounding grades. There aren't any tests so your grade is pretty much made up of the two essays that you write. I had no interest in the topic of this class so it was hard for me to pay attention and write the papers, but it was worth the A. I also did not like how the Professor and my TA would constantly bring up their political and personal beliefs during class- very unprofessional.

extremely free only 2 assignments are midterm paper and final paper plus a group project and all are graded very easily - can just chatgpt all the readings before writing the paper

If I could take this class every quarter I would!! Prof Kelley is an amazing man and a great teacher who is extremely passionate and knowledgable about the subject. This class genuinely changed my worldview and gave me an incredible understanding of so many historical and contemporary issues in just one quarter. It was definitely a reading heavy class but I know people who only ever read an article or two right before the papers and were fine. I would say this class is definitely a you get out of it what you put in to it kind of thing. I personally am a polisci major and very interested in the topic so I put a lot of heart into my papers, which weren't easy to write but seriously pushed me to think critically in ways I never have before. On the other hand, I had friends who didn't care one bit about the class and still did well, just weren't moved by any of the ideas introduced. I would definitely recommend either way, Prof Kelley will be your favorite prof either way.

To succeed in this class you MUST attend lecture and discussions. The professor's lectures can oftentimes be confusing and he does not include all information on slides. The readings are difficult to navigate without prior knowledge on the subject matter. This class consists of two essays (which were graded VERY harshly), a group project (done with your entire discussion section), and a participation grade (done at the discretion of your TA). This class is heavily dependent on your TA, and you MUST cater your essays and commentary to the TA, otherwise you will not score well. This class has certainly changed from its previous format, the professor wants more likeminded people to take the class, which makes this a tougher GE. Take a look at his wikipedia and if you are really interested in his work, he's the prof for you, otherwise this is a challenging class with a heavy reading workload.