A lot of material is covered. Lecture pace is high speed and doesn't allow much time to digest material while in class. Too busy scrambling to type notes. For exams, potential essay prompts are given in advance. Study those. Massive amounts of reading are assigned. Frustrating when not all is useddiscussed. One book was never discussed.
I took this course expecting history, not lectures on obscure economists. Once I figured out her esoteric angle on twentieth century America the course became more manageable, though never close to enjoyable.
Incredibly excited coming into the class but wow...I will never take another class with Furner again. She is rude and her lectures are entirely pointless..I felt like I learned more just from reading the uploaded PP's. Tough tests, and 1 longer paper, excessive unnecessary reading.
Most of her lectures are bewildering tirades against obscure economists. She repeatedly asserts her affinity for "Neo-Pragmatist" philosophy and "Institutionalist" economics, but you will never ever care why. Sometimes mean and suspicious but often her head is in the clouds and out of the classroom. Avoid her at all costs.
She is a very sweet teacher, and has good lectures but at the end of the day her midterms/final was IMPOSSIBLE! atteneded every class, studied, and still didnt get a good grade. she is helpful for the paper though
The most awful class I have had at UCSB! She spends at least 30 min. before every class talking about things that don't relate to lecture, and she never gets through all of her lecture. She assigns an insane amount of reading, and expects you all to have completed it. I would NEVER take a class with her again.
I've taken three classes with Furner and I like her. She is intelligent and nice and presents interesting topics. The class is not a breeze as i've got B+ all three times even after trying for an A. Even so that does not diminish the teaching and the knowledge i've received. She required good writing for her papers so be prepared
Key to getting her swings in anger, clarity, help is her self image as Left-intellect. She needs to feel superior. Drops names of scholars. She once sneered AND laughed at accounts of how bad the Soviet Gulags were! Superficial, insensitive, bitter, self-absorbed, judgmental are all words that describe her well. The course is about her, not hist.
Very disappointing. Furner is a perfectionist. She expected us to read an immense amount of material, wasted lecture time by raving about Obama, and couldn't convert professional-speak into student-speak. Could've gotten an A if a matching section on each exam decimated my score, I'll settle for a B, but I'd recommend against this course.
She is very knowledgeable about her topics but is unable to get that knowledge to the student. Exams were sooooo hard!! Even with going to every class and reading the dull stuff we had to read I just could not get it!! She destroyed my GPA! The class focused way to much on complex politics versus real engaged history. Don't take it!!
lectures are really boring and generally don't help for preparation of the midterm/final.It is very economical so I wouldn't take the class unless you have some background in economic studies because she assumes everyone already does. Sooo much reading it is impossible to do it all! We had 2 small book reports, but don't be deceived the books thems
Rarely any class discussions... no explanation of how things were graded/what was looked for in the essays. Midterm, Essay, Final... all essays. She was really enthusiastic and passionate about history but I think there could have been other ways to engage students. Maybe she just wasn't for me.
Hist 174DR Directed Reading on inequality. Thought I was going to hate Furner at the start of class. Expects everyone to come to every class, do every page of reading, and be ready to critique. Once we all got comfortable, the class was great. She is an incredible historian and really cares about students. Stay away if you aren't fully commited tho
Without a doubt, one of the best History Professors at UCSB. Everyone in my Sorority just raves!! Not easy, but come on, this is university level!! Clear, concise, to the point...Prof Furner makes History enjoyable, worthwhile, and fun!!! Highest recommendation!!!!!!!!
Without a doubt one of the best History Professors in California. Our current War, the economic recession, the issues of immigration, gender equality, and education that we all confront today are put into historical context by Prof. Furner.Insightful, clear,and involved; she knows how students feel about contemporary America; she explains our past!
Great teacher. Loves talking about political economy. Course was slightly biased, but no more so than you'll find with any class that stresses other things than the history of "white men doing great things." Left-leaning, but not dogmatically so. Extremely thorough exhaustive lectures. A pleasure to have!
She is not a nice lady...older but mean. Almost bitter. The tests were ridiculous, the group project was awful, and she made nasty/rude/inappropriate comments in class. When discussing Katrina I mentioned that the red cross had trailers they were not giving out. I saw it on a documentary with Lisa Ling. She said I was wrong and moved on.
boring class, but not overly hard if you do your reading which I didnt
Class is boring. She rambles on about stuff that isn't important and gets angry if you don't copy down notes about it, and asks questions during lecture which are more like personal questions from a talk show. Her voice is soft and she doesn't use a mic so you can easily fall asleep. She does not explain concepts well at all. She needs to retire!
Class content: her pet interest in making socialism seem more important in USA hist that it was; she offers precious little objectivity and tons of tiresome advocacy. She is also full of herself, but otherwise pleasant enough. Easy but unstable grader. Her mind, like her writings, are choked with marginal references and fashionable leftist philo.
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I'd say overall she is a great prof. Her lectures are intresting and her test are fair and correspond to lecture and readings. The only thing that sucked was that she would switch the damn powerpoint slides too fast. But whatever, it was a summer class....what can you expect. Furner still kicks ass.
She's a nice little lady but she tends too just talk and talk and talk.....if you do the readings and homework you should do great but if you miss one chapter or class you could eb completely lost....she's also very helpful...if you ask!
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