"I was very impressed with her personality," Iriye said. "She's very generous with her time. She's a very warm person."

"We all read her work and were very impressed with her scholarship and her contributions to knowledge," he said.

All history professors interviewed said they hoped that Kalman would accept the tenure offer.

"It's very tough to get people from the beach," Kirby conceded. "But we are hopeful that she will come."

Kalman, 41, received a B.A. from Pomona College in 1974, a J.D. from UCLA Law School in 1977 and a master of arts, master of philosophy and doctorate from Yale in 1982.

Since 1982, Kalman has taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

She is the author of Abe Fortas: A Biography (1990) and Legal Realism at Yale (1986). A third book, The Search for Community: Republicanism and the Anxiety of Legal Scholarship, has just gone to press, and a fourth, Years of Disenchantment: The United States from Ford through Bush, is currently in preparation.

Kirby said the department is also searching for a senior professor in early American history, one senior and one junior professor in modern American history and one junior professor who would be a joint appointment in American history and Afro-American studies.

He said the department will bring candidates to Harvard to meet with the department this fall and winter.

"I am hopeful that we will conclude these searches by spring semester," Kirby said.

Kirby said the department's efforts in the field of American history are the result of an increased focus on American history that began under former chair Thomas N. Bisson.

"We made is a commitment over some years to American history which is now showing some fruit," Kirby said