The History Department has offered a tenured position to a specialist in 20th century American history after a search of more than six years, department chair William C. Kirby said yesterday.

Laura Kalman, a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara specializing in modern American history and U.S. legal history, has not yet decided whether to accept the offer, which has been approved by President Neil L. Rudenstine, Kirby said.

The offer to Kalman continues an overhaul of the department's undergraduate program that began last year with the appointment of three tenured faculty members and a new tutorial and track system.

And Kirby said the department is now focusing on revamping its American history program and is hoping to make four other appointments in American history this spring.

Kalman, who was at Harvard last year as a fellow in the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, is well-respected as a legal historian for her biography of Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas.

"I think her Fortas biography may be the single best judicial biography of an American Supreme Court jus- tice," said Warren Professor of American Legal History Morton J. Horwitz.

Kalman's biography won the American Historical Association's 1992 Littleton-Griswold prize for the best book on the history of American law and society.

"I used her biography as a required book in my Warren Court class," Horwitz said, "and I know all of her scholarship very well. I think it is an outstanding appointment, and Harvard is lucky if they can get her."

"I think she would be a major scholarly presence in the Harvard history department," Horwitz said.

Kalman, reached at her home last night, confirmed that she was considering the offer, but declined to comment further.

"I think its too early for me to comment right at this time," she said.

Some professors on the search committee lauded Kalman's qualifications.

"The department has been looking to make an appointment in 20th century U.S. history and after many years of research, we concluded she would be the best candidate," said Akira Iriye, Warren professor of American history.

"I think [the search] has been [going on for] many years," Iriye said. "I came here in 1989, but the search had already been going on before that."

Trumbull Professor of American History Donald H. Fleming, also on the search committee, described Kalman as an "effective teacher and speaker," saying that she has an "attractive personality" and is "favorable with her students."

"I think she would do a good job teaching anywhere," Fleming said.

"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