Guide to College Majors in History
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What is History?
Historians study, analyze, and interpret the facts and timelines of the past. They use any recorded source of information to perform this task, including government records, newspaper articles, photographs, institutional records, articles from periodicals, interviews, films, personal diaries, and letters. |
Most historians have a specialty. This specialty could include a particular state or country, a certain time, or a particular person or group of persons (such as a presidential historian). A historian may also specialize in a less tangible field such as intellectual, cultural, political, or diplomatic history.
Career Education in History
On-Campus and Online Degree Programs in History
The Internet has made a degree in history more accessible than ever before. Busy professionals or parents can enroll in online history degree programs that allow them to pursue challenging research from any computer connected to the World Wide Web. When selecting your history degree program, make sure that your prospective college or university offers a concentration in the historical period or subject that interests you the most. You may find it more rewarding to work toward a degree with peers and professors that share your interest in a field, instead of "going it alone."
Diplomas, Certificates, and Associate Degrees in History
Professionals who earned their undergraduate degree in a field other than history can prepare themselves for graduate study by completing an associate degree in their chosen specialty. Many schools now offer certificate programs in highly specialized areas as an opportunity for people who share an interest in a specific era to sample the kinds of courses involved in a traditional degree program.
Bachelor's Degrees in History
The required time to obtain an online degree in history varies depending on the educational institution, transferable credits, and the learning pace set by the student. A degree in history requires a curriculum of core courses that can include mathematics, English, literature, science, fine arts and a variety of electives. A history degree also requires degree specific classes such as the history of civilization, premodern history, non-western history, Russian Studies, Latin Studies, and American History.
Master's Degrees in History
Master's degree programs in history immerse the student deeper in their understanding of specific regions and eras. Areas of study include the social and political history of countries that have been influential in world development, in-depth research and written analysis, and preparation of a thesis. Course completion requirements and completion time vary depending on the educational institution, transferable credits, and the learning pace of the student.
Doctorate and PhD Degrees in History
Doctorate level programs in history emphasis research skills and the writing of history. PhD programs can focus participants on topics like the theories of urban and regional economics, developmental economics, econometrics, monetary theory, advanced microeconomic theory, gaming theory, and experimental economics. Course completion requirements and completion time vary depending on the educational institution, transferable credits, and the learning pace of the student.
What Can You Do With a College Degree in History?
Career Options for Aspiring History Graduates
While many who study history strive to become historians or professors, a plethora of additional career opportunities exist for them. Tomorrow's history students should consider their ultimate career goals before enrolling in a degree program to ensure the appropriate coursework is available.
History Career Paths
Arts Foundation Manager
Combining a deep understanding of the importance of the arts throughout history with the interpersonal skills required to run a large charity organization, many arts foundations and other nonprofit organizations recruit history graduates for leadership positions. A history major's organizational skills and attention to detail makes him or her ideal to keep an eye on complex financial transactions, especially the transfer of assets from family endowments. Likewise, a professional with strong storytelling skills can more effectively recruit major donors during capital campaigns by putting a potentially large contribution in an attractive context.
Executive Coach
A growing number of history majors have put their strong interpersonal communication skills to work as advisors to corporate leaders. Executive coaches help their clients weigh important decisions in the context of past successes and failures. Coaches must also use their interviewing and research skills to quickly assess the real truth of a situation before offering guidance. Most importantly, executive coaches help professionals write their own histories by encouraging clients to look at the longest possible historical view of current events. Historian and consultant Steven Covey often advises students to "begin with the end in mind" and address today's decision by envisioning the bullet points in your own future obituary.
Financial Auditor
In the wake of financial misdealing and ethical violations at many publicly traded companies, banks, and auditing firms have started to hire an increasing number of history majors to help improve their research and investigative operations. Though a career as an auditor can be highly rewarding, professionals with a background in history tend to be motivated by their search for the truth, as opposed to business school graduates who may want to find the quickest route to profits. History majors who work as auditors can apply their storytelling skills to relate critical information to company leaders and shareholders in a format that is easier to digest than just a raw set of numbers.
Foreign Service Agent
You may not find yourself slinking around European nightclubs in swanky clothing like the stars of the television series Alias, but the United States Government does want your help if you understand the history and culture of foreign countries. Numerous government agencies employ history majors to provide valuable insight and context for potential policy and partnership decisions. Helping our leaders better understand the customs of our friends and foes around the world can open up new opportunities for trade and cooperation, or it can defuse the military fallout of potential misunderstandings.
History Professor
Some history majors thrive in academia so well, that they make perfect candidates to train tomorrow's generation of historians. Tenured history professors don't just recite copy from old textbooks, however. Many faculty members spend most of their time writing about history and culture while leading research teams that investigate new leads about specialized subjects. By uncovering new information and reaching new insights, history professors help refine the stories we tell about past civilizations while helping us write a better story for ourselves.
Judicial Clerk
History professionals with a passion for the law can find their true calling as clerks in a variety of court settings. In today's highly litigious culture, clerks combine their ability to look up information in online databases with their skills for hunting down obscure references in the stacks of law libraries. Students with powerful memories can launch lucrative careers as assistants and advisors to judges. By relating current court cases to previous precedents, clerks can speed decision-making and keep the wheels of justice moving swiftly.
Legislative Analyst
Attention to detail and keen insight into the effects of legislation make history majors valuable advisors to lawmakers, lobbyists, and nonprofit organizations. History majors can effectively predict the outcomes of government spending programs and other legislative initiatives, while recommending alternate solutions to current problems. History majors employed as analysts can also use their interviewing skills to lead teams of market researchers. Through personal interviews, polls, and focus groups, analysts can discover the most effective ways to tell stories about new programs to concerned voters.
Magazine Editor
History majors that edit magazines rely on their strong memories and powerful fact-checking skills to prepare compelling reading for their subscribers. In the fast-paced world of publishing, many editors have to make coverage decisions based on raw instinct. A history major can immediately understand whether a story or an angle holds relevance for their readers in the context of current events. They can also help writers and contributors adjust their projects based on past coverage of a topic or an interview subject. By viewing their role through a historical perspective, magazine editors can create publications that accurately chronicle our current lives.
Marketing Director
Like many liberal arts and humanities majors, history students make excellent candidates for the advertising and marketing sectors. Their deep understanding for common cultural references allows history graduates to tell stories to consumers that actively engage them in the messages of their products or brands. History majors can use their powerful storytelling skills to win over internal stakeholders like clients or company leaders. And their attention to detail comes in handy when preparing marketing budgets and analyzing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and press releases.
Novelist
Though novels are works of fiction, audiences crave authenticity in their entertainment. Many history majors who share a love of writing can put their knowledge of historical periods to use by crafting clear visions of days gone by. Because history majors spend so much time learning to decipher the causes and effects of major world events, they can craft elaborate scenarios that keep readers engaged from cover to cover. By couching their tales in accurate settings, historians can open up their favorite worlds to new audiences. Many readers pick up a historian's love of an era or of a character, while enjoying an entertaining story.
Politician
History majors that enter the political arena often enjoy significant advantages against competitors who lack the insight into world events and the ability to communicate ideas effectively. Many politicians with history degrees can develop innovative new policies and strategies by emulating some of the world's most admired leaders. They can identify potential trouble more easily by matching up other legislators' ideas with historical precedent. Most importantly, they can approach their positions with the long view of history on their side. By envisioning positive results, they can effectively break down their goals into actionable steps that appeal to voters.
Real Estate Professional
As groups of Americans move around the country to follow jobs and opportunity, real estate professionals that can tap into the higher end of the market can benefit from significantly larger commissions with little extra work compared to colleagues that hustle subdivision properties. History majors entering the real estate field can exploit their skills to translate the history and character of a building into an attractive story for potential buyers. Since many real estate purchases happen because of emotional feel rather than pure financial logic, a history major that creates the most compelling vision for their clients can reap huge rewards by adding significant value to each purchase.
Sales Analyst
History majors can use their understanding of cultural cycles to predict market swings. By timing sales and promotions to match larger trends, sales analysts help their firm maximize profits during boom times and preserve revenues during lean periods. By applying their research skills to the study of short-term and medium-term sales, history majors working as sales analysts can recommend strategy shifts that help their employers compete more effectively in the open market.
Sportswriter
If sports fans want to know the facts about a game, they can look at a box score. If they really want to understand the impact of a team's performance or an athlete's individual achievement, they turn to trusted sportswriters and columnists. History majors who love sports can chronicle today's stars by comparing them to history's most memorable athletes. By telling powerful stories, sportswriters with history degrees can engage sports fans in entertaining and sometimes passionate debates about the future of current players and the legacies of our most influential athletes.
Television Producer
The proliferation of cable and satellite television networks in the past few decades has created an intense demand for fresh, yet inexpensive, productions. Many historians have jumped at the opportunity to tell stories about their favorite eras on networks like The History Channel or The Discovery Channel. As filmmaker Ken Burns reignited America's love for historical documentaries, many history majors use film and television to tell new stories from past eras. Using compelling storytelling techniques, historians can build powerful dramas from actual events more quickly and efficiently than Hollywood studios can churn out television shows and blockbusters.
Preparing for History Career Opportunities
Trends for History Careers
According to the U.S. Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), today's history majors enjoy stronger opportunities for employment when they blend their history degree training with another specialty, like finance or literature. Finding a niche that you love will not only open up new job opportunities, it will create a stronger chance for you to position yourself as one of only a handful of experts in a highly specialized field.
Salary Information for Careers in History
Federal and state governments hire the largest percentage of historians for a variety of positions. According to the BLS, historians earned a median annual salary of $54,630 in 2006. While the bottom 10% earned less than $24,560, those in the top 10% earned in excess of $93,930.
Skills of Successful History-Related Professionals
Whether you strive to become a historian or an educator specializing in history, there are a few personal and professional characteristics that help foster success:
- Understanding of history and development as it applies to nations and groups of people.
majors don't just study world events for the sake of trivia. By truly understanding the causes and effects of major shifts in politics and culture, historians can help us prevent future catastrophes by preventing us from repeating past mistakes. Revealing cyclical patterns in history can help politicians and economists understand the ebb and flow of power and trade, while assuring citizens of the world that life goes on through even the darkest hours.
- Efficiency in oral and written presentation skills.
Historians must tell the stories of people who cannot speak for themselves. Therefore, the best historians develop powerful storytelling skills that allow them to relate history to a variety of audiences. Historians working in primarily academic fields must be able to present papers and presentations under the scrutiny of their peers. Corporate historians must prepare reports for company officials that provide insight for future decisions. Authors and journalists use language to make history come alive on the printed page or on the big screen.
- Detailed research skills.
Historians must understand how to dig deep for facts that their predecessors may have overlooked. With advances in technology, historians enjoy unprecedented access to previously unavailable texts and artifacts that shed new light on ancient cultures. Modern historians, on the other hand, must wade through today's abundance of data to glean the most compelling threads of current events. All historians learn the benefits of triangulation, a technique that helps researchers verify facts by identifying multiple, unconnected sources of information.
- Proficient interview skills and techniques.
To tell stories of human events, historians must develop powerful abilities to ask questions that bring new information to light without influencing interview subjects. By probing interviewees correctly, historians can uncover compelling new pieces of data that can radically alter our understanding of past actions. Historians with direct access to major historical figures may spend their entire careers chronicling decisions and policies for the benefit of future generations. Specialists in ancient cultures use the same interviewing techniques to question their predecessors and peers, to refine and improve the stories we tell to our children and their children.
- Proper and accurate record keeping skills.
Even minor errors in recording interview data or research findings can warp our perception of events. History majors learn traditions and techniques that assure an accurate depiction of the past. Stringent peer review programs combined with an eager fact-checking culture prevent historians from making unethical or inaccurate claims to support controversial views or policy decisions.
- Critical thinking skills.
Besides cataloging the people and the events of the past, history majors learn how to see hidden patterns in time that can profoundly influence our future. To the layperson, it might seem that many of the world's stories have already been told. History majors develop the ability to look at tired tales in fresh new ways, so they can show us the relevance of past events to our current lives.
- Strong interpersonal communications skills.
Throughout their careers, history majors will rely on the powerful abilities to speak person-to-person that they develop during their degree programs. Whether gently coercing an interview subject to reveal a previously secret piece of information or defending themselves in an academic debate, historians must apply the most effective communication skills to fit a variety of situations.
Certification and Licensure
No specific state or federal governments require historians to hold specific licenses or certifications. Instead, many potential employers rely on the peer review and publishing process to determine the long-term authenticity of a historian's work. Therefore, most history degree programs encourage students to pursue publication of their research in academic journals. Likewise, many degree programs prepare students to showcase their work as oral presentations at conferences.
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