Professor knows a lot about legal cases dealing with racism and America. He even testified against the KKK. Does not give A+'s which sucks because I had a 99% in the class, he blames grade inflation for this. Will write you a letter of rec for law school which is cool.

Great professor. Current subject matter is tied into the historical text.

VonBlum is definitely atop the list of the best teachers i have ever had in my life. He is the most passionate professor ever! the material for 165 is 1960's history, but boy oh boy does he spice it up. his lecture was 3 hours and it wasn't anything remotely close to too long. i loved every minute of this guy. The TA's determine your grade, so make sure you go to discussion. 2 papers, 50/50 for your grade. They didnt tell us, but make sure you use MLA or APA and they one i had ERIN was a pretty tough grader, but shes super nice and helpful. The paper topics are really broad and they're just looking for creative thinking ideas. GRAMMAR is really important. i got marked down a loooot for grammar that would have been beyond sufficient in most classes. Have people go over your papers, maybe even a tutor. I wouldnt call it an easy A unless your an unbelievable writer. Pretty easy B, but regardless take this class because you truly gain invaluable information that you'll hold with you for the rest of your life.

Vonblum is the kind of professor that you either love or hate, there is no in between. He usually teaches at night, which is great, just one three hour lecture a week. Trust me, you won't fall asleep, because vonblum is extremely loud and passionate when lecturing. The class is very interactive so don't be afraid to speak up. Vonblum does not believe in exams, two papers is all it take plus a few short answer questions on the final day of class. However, to get A's on your paper, you really have to bring your a game and take a stance. Vonblum is very political, left-wing, if you belong to the Tea party, this may not be the class for you. The readings are of secondary importance, but you have to go to lecture. TA takes roll at the discussion sections, so you want to show your face there too. Even though Vonblum is a little too radical for my taste, I admire his passion and intelligence. You will not fall asleep in this class. All in all a great elective for comm majors.

I really don't understand all of the love for this professor. He seemed more interested in bragging about what a morally upstanding person he is than actually teaching us. He just came off so high and mighty and I found his arrogance really off putting, even though I almost always agreed with what he said. I found his many of lectures to be pretty useless, and it was often hard to focus because he would lecture for the entire 2 hours and 50 minutes other than a short break. He loved to repeat the same line over and over: "I hate racism! I hate sexism! I hate homophobia!" which I thought was cool of him at first but weird after he did it so many times, like he thought it was a hot take somehow.

As for the class itself, you have to watch a movie every week, and there are 2 6-7 page papers and a short final. The final is super easy, I didn't study for it at all. I found a lot of the films he chose to be pretty boring or just odd choices in general with all the options available to him. We also had to use Packpack every week which was really tedious and the grading criteria was not clear at all. I also found section to be unhelpful since the class was already discussion-based, but attendance was required. My TA Micah would assign additional films for us to watch which was kind of unfair because the other TA never did for his students. Overall, this class was a pretty easy A but I really did not enjoy it, and I would not recommend Von Blum at all.

Von Blum was great but DO NOT GET ERIN AS A T.A.!!! Von Blum was an incredible professor, with only 2 papers- no tests- completely manageable work load. He also podcasts his lectures so you can make up any classes you have to miss online. This class would be perfect and an easy A, but Erin, the girl T.A. graded her sections so harshly that her entire class banded together to complain after realizing she did not give a single person in the class a grade higher then a B+ on the midterm paper. In addition to this, she added a zero credit but mandatory presentation to all of her discussion sections. Take Von Blum, but GET ANOTHER T.A. BESIDES ERIN PETTIGREW!!!

Easy A-- Von Blum cares about the impact he leaves on his students, not the grades he gives out. He cares about his students more than any professor I've ever had. Here's what you should know. He gives 2 large essays per quarter, and then an extremely fair quiz at the end of the quarter.

Essays are worth 45% each, and the quiz is worth 10% of the grade.

Essays are 6-7 double spaced pages, several topics are provided and you choose one that you feel most comfortable about. TA's grade the essays.

The quiz is like 5 questions, open book, and didn't require any studying honestly. You walk out of his class with more empathy for others and a larger perspective. Just take the damn class, the man is GOOD at what he does, and he walks the walk too. It was an honor meeting him throughout my academic endeavors and being a student of his.

Just take this class. No notes, just conversational and incredibly mind expanding.

Class details: 1 paper, topic of your choice, related to this class. Von Blum isn't a tough grader, but he cares about HOW MUCH THE STUDENT CARES about the topic. So if your even slightly passionate about world topics, this is definitely the class for you!

Our class looked at different centuries of art that had really cool political and sociological messaging in it. Very engaging class! For example, I loved the japanese internment camp art that he showed us, or the European art that touched on classism in earlier centuries.

The class suddenly cared about history in a whole new way each time he was done lecturing. I really respected his approach-- just wanting us to CARE. So god forbid, when we start our careers someday, we are empathetic and well-rounded human beings. SUCH A GOOD CLASS.

The person who commented below clearly doesn't understand the value of this professor. Judging by the year that comment was written, probably a corporate lawyer that no one respects by now.

The class itself was really easy. There was only one assignment that we had to complete the entire quarter. It was a 20 page research paper. You do not need to attend his lectures to do well on the paper. If anything, go to office hours to clear up confusion.

Other than the light workload, I really did not like the class. He said that we are allowed to freely express our political views in class, but you’re really only allowed to say things that go in line with what he views as correct (left-wing extremism). The other students in the class (who were even farther left) acted as thought police to shut people down who have differing opinions (thoughtcrime). I had to stop going to his lectures because they were basically a 3 hour version of 1984’s “Two Minutes Hate” towards the Republican Party.

The only reason why I would take this class again is because it is 5 units of easy A.

Professor Von Blum has quite a lot of accomplishments as a lifelong activist and academic. You don't have to wait long for him to tell you all of them! He is an incredibly vain and self-centered man. The entire course was possibly the easiest, most uncontroversial educational experience I've ever had. The information expressed regarding racism and other forms of bigotry in world history was stuff you might learn in 2 weeks in high school. Very disappointed in the academic rigor from such a prestigious university.

Aside from the hollowness of the course content and the highschool level assignments, we also have to deal with the many quirks of the Professor and his groupies (communications or history majors who hang on his every word, following him from class to class). The political statements he made in class were tired and lazy. He spoke often of his belief in academic freedom (which I appreciate) but discouraged many students who differed in opinion than him by his aggressive demeanor. But, being within a political minority on campus, I am used to challenging the quasi-fascistic shouting down of competing beliefs. I was one of the few who would challenge his idealogy, and his foul-tempered troglodytes wasted no time in being triggered by dissenting opinion.

Take Von Blum's classes if you wish to be inundated further into the matrix by the political machine that is UCLA. The violent and disgusting neo-marxism expressed by him and his loyal followers is what is wrong with the education system at large. There is no room for a dissenting opinion when those who are brave enough to criticize the majority view are demonized.