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History offers a storehouse of information about how peoples and societies behave. An exclusive reliance on current data would limit what we might understand. How can we understand the influence of technological innovation if we don't know about the past before that innovation? How do we handicap our efforts to evaluate the role that beliefs play in shaping individualism if we don't know about a past before individualism was prized? History operates as a lab for us; data from the past is evidence which helps us figure out why we behave the way we do now.
History helps us understand change and how the society we live in came to be. The past causes the present, and so it causes the future as well. When we try to understand why a change in the teenage suicide rate occurred in the last decades, why the Republicans or the Democrats or members of a new political party now dominate government, or why network television is losing its audience, we need to study the factors that shape these changes.
Take an important human phenomenon such as alcoholism. Scientists have been identifying specific genes that seem to cause a proclivity toward alcoholism in some individuals. But alcoholism has a history: rates of alcoholism have risen and fallen; they have varied from one group to another. Attitudes and policies about alcoholism have changed. History is indispensable to an understanding of why these changes occur.
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History provides stories and those stories can entertain and even inspire us. They can also suggest what actions we should avoid. It may be fun to hear stories about how the American Revolution was won by some of our ancestors. It's instructive to hear stories from some of the descendants of the American Tories who lost and remember that loss with bitterness.
History provides identity. Historical data include evidence about how families, towns and cities, institutions and whole countries were formed. For many Americans, studying the history of one's own family is the most relevant use of history. It is exciting to learn facts about genealogy. It is interesting to learn about how one's family was affected by large historical events: Did my ancestors come to America after the Irish famine? After the wars in Vietnam? Who were these people, my ancestors? Why did they come here? Or did they meet the first foreigners when they arrived here?
Last but never least: history is fun. Historians do history in large part because they enjoy the doing. History is detective work; for example, a historian working through sources may be looking for answers to a specific question.
As I looked for answers to the question, what were Communist policies toward Chinese women, I plowed through Communist documents, laws, and propaganda, news releases, and foreign assessments. Sometimes I found either nothing relevant or nothing new; sometimes "I struck gold": new understandings, new facts, policy shifts, new assessments. Then I knew some things no one else had reported. Ever since, I look forward to more nuggets about Chinese women and Communism: What are today's relevant policies? How are women actually affected by them? How are my old conclusions holding up (or not holding up)?
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The ability to assess evidence. The study of history involves experience with various kinds of evidence: public statements, private records like diaries, numerical data like the US census, visual materials like architecture and movies. Historians learn ways to discern the relevant from the marginal, the probably true from the probably false, the self-serving from the altruistic.
The ability to assess conflicting interpretations. Learning history means gaining some skill in sorting through diverse, often conflicting, interpretations of an event or a life or a political position. These skills include weighing which interpretations are credible and which of those are the more credible. Skills include evaluating when negative criticism is helpful and when it is destructive.
Experience in assessing past examples of change. Analysis of change means developing capacities for determining the magnitude and significance of change. Was the invention and subsequent use of the automobile more or less significant than the invention of modern contraceptives in changing modern dating practices?
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The study of history helps create good business people, professionals, and political leaders. The number of explicit professional jobs for historians is considerable, but most people who study history don't become professional historians. Large numbers of history majors go into the business world, into education, into government, or into law.
Professional historians teach at various levels, work in museums and media centers, do historical research for businesses or public agencies, or participate in the growing number of historical consultancies.
But most people who study history use their training for broader purposes. They find their experience relevant to jobs in a variety of careers as well as to further study in fields like law and public administration.
Employers often seek students with the kinds of skill history study promotes: research skills, the ability to find and evaluate sources of information, and the means to identify and evaluate diverse interpretations. Work in history improves basic writing and speaking skills and is directly relevant to many of the analytical requirements needed in public and private careers: the capacity to identify, assess, and explain trends is essential. These skills especially prepare students for changing careers in our changing economy.
Business and history: A number of large corporations, especially banks, have strong overseas ties and interests. These corporations want employees who have knowledge about the cultures of the rest of the world, especially about aspects of their economies. Many corporations and businesses seek employees who know how to write something about that larger world. This is especially true for jobs in marketing, sales, public relations and personnel, where dealing with people is important.
Media: In order to be a competent and effective print or broadcast journalist, you need an in-depth command of the historical context of the issues about which you report. Furthermore, newspapers, magazines, and radio-television operations have back-up staffs. Large metropolitan papers print back-up or research articles dealing with currently important issues. News magazines are concerned with the historical background of events of current interest. In such media, researchers often outnumber reporters or editors.
History and the law: Traditionally, men and women interested in going on to law school have tended to choose history as an undergraduate major because law schools want students with well developed verbal skills. In addition, history majors learn to think critically and express themselves effectively. The study of law presupposes a certain knowledge of history. A good lawyer must know where a law came from and why it exists; otherwise, she or he can never use it intelligently or creatively, let alone get it amended.
Government service: One of the biggest of all employers is the government: federal, state and local. History students have advantages if they seek a number of those government jobs. The foreign service welcomes candidates with broad historical knowledge. The Foreign Service Exam emphasizes such knowledge, and a history major can serve as excellent preparation for such a career. A history major who concentrates in areas such as social and urban history is ideally qualified to fill many government jobs within the United States. And don't forget opportunities in the legislative branch; research on bills and proposals, as well as staff assistance to legislative committees.
Museums, libraries, historical societies, archives, the national park service: Both federal and state governments have staffs of trained archivists to handle a flow of documents which will likely not diminish. Even some businesses are beginning to set up archives, and they need people trained in records management. Add to these the demand for qualified staff in the nation's many museums, libraries, historical societies, and similar agencies; and there are a large number of possible positions for history majors. The National Park Service hires many people with undergraduate degrees in history and more advanced training to manage the many historical sites under its direction. The research, interpretation, and presentation of historical sites (e.g. homes of famous people, battlefields, early settlements) is in fact one of the most important ways that historical material is communicated to the public.
-Mimi Frenier
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