Documentary featuring Final UC Berkeley Course Taught by Robert Reich to screen Wednesday
The University of Arkansas Department of Sociology and Criminology will host a screening of the 2025 documentary The Last Class at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3, in Gearhart Hall, room 026. The film offers an intimate look at former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich during his final course at UC Berkeley, were he taught for over 40 years to an estimated 40,000 students.
The Last Class is a deeply personal reflection on education and societal change, capturing Reich as he grapples with his own aging while confronting the challenges facing a new generation. The documentary explores the widening gap in income and wealth inequality since the late 1970s, a topic central to Reich’s “Wealth and Poverty” course, and the potential dangers this poses to society.
The film showcases Reich delivering his final lectures to a class of one thousand students in the largest lecture hall on the UC Berkeley campus, urging them not to accept the status quo. The Last Class reveals a previously unseen emotional vulnerability from Reich as he shares his lifelong passion for teaching and his belief in the power of the next generation to effect change. The screening is open to the public.
