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Department of History

Study Here

History is about change. Studying the past reveals the continuing, fundamental changeability of our world, and of the many ways we perceive, adapt to, and often shape change.Ìý Studying the past thus lets us explore how and why things developed as they did; it also helps us see the present differently, and imagine different futures.

History also reveals an exhilarating variety of social worlds – many of them radically, exotically different from our own, even as they are fully comprehensible as human.

Learn from award-winning professors

Professors in the History Department will inspire you to discover the rich variety of these changes, while helping you develop the tools to understand, analyze, and assess their many aspects, experiences, and interpretations.Ìý Your understanding and assessment of theseÌý factors will in turn inform and shape your own arguments about history.Ìý As historians must be able to communicate such analyses and arguments clearly and convincingly, HÂþ»­'s History faculty are especially committed to teaching our students the necessary skills Ìý– in both written and oral expression – to make their research results accessible, clear and persuasive.

The job market after studying History


As a history major, the world is your oyster and you can consider a multitude of careers.

Your degree in history can lead to a career as an educator, researcher, communicator or editor, information manager, advocate, or even a businessperson.

More specifically, jobs you can consider include: advertising executive, analyst, archivist, broadcaster, campaign worker, consultant, congressional aide, editor, foreign service officer, foundation staffer, information specialist, intelligence agent, journalist, legal assistant, lobbyist, personnel manager, public relations staffer, researcher, teacher . . . the list can be almost endless.

Read about our history graduates and their careers

Careers in History

Historians as Educators

  • Elementary Schools
  • Secondary Schools
  • Postsecondary Education
  • Historic Sites and Museums

 

Historians as Researchers

  • Museums and Historical Organizations
  • Cultural Resources Management and Historic Preservation
  • Think Tanks

Historians as Communicators

  • Documentary Editors
  • Producers of Multimedia Material
  • Historians as Information Managers
  • Archivists
  • Records Managers
  • Librarians
  • Information Managers
  • Journalists

Historians as Advocates

  • Lawyers and Paralegals
  • Litigation Support
  • Legislative Staff Work
  • Foundations

Historians in Businesses and Associations

  • Historians in Corporations
  • Contract Historians
  • Historians and Nonprofit Associations

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Leaders, Icons, and Authors

Check out how noted individuals shaped their life and career with a degree in History.

Politicians

  • Gordon Brown (University of Edinburgh)
  • Helmut Kohl (University of Heidelberg)
  • Theodore Roosevelt (Harvard University)
  • Woodrow Wilson (Princeton University)
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt (Harvard University)
  • Richard Nixon (Whittier College)
  • George W. Bush (Yale University)
  • Joe Biden (Delaware University)
  • Sen. George McGovern (Dakota Wesleyan University)
  • Sen. George Mitchell (Bowdoin College)
  • Rep. Newt Gingrich (Emory University)

Authors and Artists

  • J. R. Moehringer (Yale University)
  • Franz Schuh (University of Vienna)
  • Frank Stella (Princeton University)
  • Laura Anne Gilman (Skidmore College)
  • Annie Proulx (University of Vermont)
  • Ayn Rand (Petrograd State University)
  • Salman Rushdie (Cambridge University)
  • Malcolm Gladwell (University of Toronto)
  • Gail Z. Martin (Grove City College)
  • Sharon Kay Penman (UT Austin)
  • Magali García Ramis (University of Puerto Rico)
  • Tony Horwitz (Brown University)
  • Flo Steinberg (UMass Amherst)

Athletes

  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (UCLA)
  • Ken Dryden (Cornell University)
  • Jackie Joyner-Kersee (UCLA)
  • Grant Hill (Duke University)
  • Bill Bradley (Princeton University)

The Media

  • Louis Theroux (Oxford University)
  • Charlie Rose (Duke University)
  • Chris Berman (Brown University)
  • Wolf Blitzer (SUNY-Buffalo)
  • Seymour Hersh (University of Chicago)
  • Charles Kuralt (University of North Carolina)

The Business World

  • Carly Fiorina (Stanford University, president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard)
  • Lee Iacocca (Lehigh University, CEO of Chrysler)
  • Martha Stewart (Barnard College)
  • Chelsea Clinton (Stanford University, hedge fund manager)
  • Chris Hughes (Harvard University, co-founder of Facebook)
  • Donna Dubinsky (Jonathan Edwards College, CEO of Palm, Inc.;developed the Personal Digital Assistant [PDA])
  • Samuel Palmisano (Johns Hopkins University, CEO of the  IBM Corporation)
  • Howard Stringer (Oxford University, chairman and CEO of the Sony Corporation)
  • Richard B. Fisher (Princeton University, chairman of Morgan Stanley)
  • Charles Sennott (UMass Amherst, co-founder and vice president of Global News)
  • Ben Silverman (Tufts University, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio)
  • Robert Johnson (University of Illinois, CEO of BET TV)
  • James Kilts (Knox College, CEO of the Gillette Corporation)
  • Jim Rogers (Yale University, founder of the Quantum Fund, creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index)

Entertainers

  • Art Garfunkel (Columbia University)
  • Sacha Baron Cohen (Cambridge University)
  • Larry David (University of Maryland)
  • Katharine Hepburn (Bryn Mawr College)
  • Conan O'Brien (Harvard University)
  • Lauryn Hill (Columbia University)
  • Steve Carell (Denison University)
  • Edward Norton (Yale University)
  • Ellen Barkin (Hunter College)
  • Jimmy Buffett (Auburn University)
  • Janeane Garofalo (Providence College)
  • Michael Palin (University of Oxford)
  • Sean Astin (UCLA)
  • Christopher Meloni (University of Colorado at Boulder)