Studying history helps us understand and grapple with complex questions and dilemmas by examining how the past has shaped and continues to shape global, national, and local relationships between societies and people.
Because history gives us the tools to analyze and explain problems in the past, it positions us to see patterns that might otherwise be invisible in the present — thus providing a crucial perspective for understanding and solving!
For example, a course on the history of public health might emphasize how environmental pollution disproportionately affects less affluent communities — a major factor in the Flint water crisis.
Understanding immigration patterns may provide crucial background for addressing ongoing racial or cultural tensions. In many ways, history interprets the events and causes that contributed to our current world. As much as it pains me to tell you, your teachers are right when they tell you that "You won't be spoon fed, like you are now, when you get to University. University history truly is about independent thought, requires the skills to think independently, you cannot depend on one author who wrote one book.
After all, that is simply one person's opinion. You need to read around. To gauge a true understanding of a historical topic you will need to question the author's thoughts themselves, argue with their conclusions and evaluate their reasoning. You will gain these skills by reading widely and gaining a wider breadth and depth of knowledge. You might think when studying history, that chronology would be the most vital part of your study.
Oh, but no. When you get to university you will soon realise that themes within history are as equally important. There have been several occasions when I have attended lectures and about three centuries have gone missing, or rather, the lectures have gone against everything natural and jumped back a few centuries. Not to fret, this is primarily because University is about giving you breadth of knowledge. For example, you may be studying the Tudor Reformation. The heart palpitations when entering said lecture, of course, come for free.
Another challenge that I faced, and perhaps you will too, is random and unfamiliar topics in essay questions. You will be expected to go to the library, find half a dozen or so books and journals, and complete the essay. From ancient history, to a specific decade, to even one specific historical event, historians will study and fact-find in order to share that information with the public.
There are many different types of historians, each with a specialty or a specific area of study in which they are experts. These specialties range from a specific time period, country, or region. For example, a historian could specialize in U. Another example of a specialization could be South African history with a concentration on apartheid. Historians may also specialize in history type, such as the history of women, or science. Work in history also improves basic writing and speaking skills and is directly relevant to many of the analytical requirements in the public and private sectors, where the capacity to identify, assess, and explain trends is essential.
Historical study is unquestionably an asset for a variety of work and professional situations, even though it does not, for most students, lead as directly to a particular job slot, as do some technical fields. But history particularly prepares students for the long haul in their careers, its qualities helping adaptation and advancement beyond entry-level employment. There is no denying that in our society many people who are drawn to historical study worry about relevance. In our changing economy, there is concern about job futures in most fields.
Historical training is not, however, an indulgence; it applies directly to many careers and can clearly help us in our working lives.
Why study history? The answer is because we virtually must, to gain access to the laboratory of human experience. When we study it reasonably well, and so acquire some usable habits of mind, as well as some basic data about the forces that affect our own lives, we emerge with relevant skills and an enhanced capacity for informed citizenship, critical thinking, and simple awareness.
The uses of history are varied. Studying history can help us develop some literally "salable" skills, but its study must not be pinned down to the narrowest utilitarianism. Some history—that confined to personal recollections about changes and continuities in the immediate environment—is essential to function beyond childhood.
Some history depends on personal taste, where one finds beauty, the joy of discovery, or intellectual challenge. Between the inescapable minimum and the pleasure of deep commitment comes the history that, through cumulative skill in interpreting the unfolding human record, provides a real grasp of how the world works.
Through clear graphs and informal prose, readers will find hard data, practical advice, and answers to common questions about the study of history and the value it affords to individuals, their workplaces, and their communities in Careers for History Majors.
You can purchase this pamphlet online at Oxford University Press. For questions about the pamphlet, please contact Karen Lou klou historians. For bulk orders contact OUP directly. What do history students learn? With the help of the AHA, faculty from around the United States have collaborated to create a list of skills students develop in their history coursework.
This list, called the "History Discipline Core," is meant to help students understand the skills they are acquiring so that they can explain the value of their education to parents, friends, and employers, as well as take pride in their decision to study history.
Corey Prize Raymond J. Cunningham Prize John H. Klein Prize Waldo G. Marraro Prize George L. Mosse Prize John E. Palmegiano Prize James A. Schmitt Grant J. Beveridge Award Recipients Albert J. Corey Prize Recipients Raymond J. Cunningham Prize Recipients John H. Fagg Prize Recipients John K.
Franklin Jameson Award Recipients J. Marraro Prize Recipients George L.
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