Why study history? 
Why indeed! There are still many people who think of History only as something dull and boring, and nothing but dates of kings and queens and battles - '1066 and all that'. The same people may quote the first Henry Ford's famous courtroom quip that 'History is more or less bunk'. He equated History with tradition, and old-fashioned ways. He preferred (like most businessmen) to live in the present and think only about tomorrow.
Yet even a moment's reflection should remind us that today will be yesterday tomorrow: we are living in tomorrow's past. Just as our future may be decided by what we do today, our present situation has been shaped by what has gone before. This is perhaps the fundamental reason for studying history. In order to know who we are and where we might be heading, we first need to know how we got to where we are now. A society with no understanding of its past is like a person suffering from loss of memory; terribly vulnerable and easily misled. In its most basic sense, therefore, history is the collective memory of humankind.
What makes history distinctive amongst academic disciplines? The historian's primary task is to understand what happened in the past and to explain why it happened the way it did. Since everything has a history, there are many different sorts of history. Some historians see themselves as social scientists, while others see themselves at the heart of the humanities, with affinities to law, languages and literature. What makes historians distinctive is their concern for change across time, and the evidence for that process of change. As the evidence is often incomplete or distorted by bias, historians have developed a distinctive methodology for handling a wide variety of sources, and techniques for analysing causation.
Finally, history is great fun. It's all about 'dead fascinating people' and teems with astonishing stories that are true. Fact is very often stranger than fiction! History is risk-free vicarious life-experience, and a very satisfying intellectual activity which will last you a lifetime. As you read about other people you will learn much about yourself as well.
'Everything that we believe about the present depends on what we believe about the past.' (Michael Howard)
'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.' (George Santayana)
Skills enhanced by history
In this dawning age of the Internet, the future (we are often told) will belong to knowledge-workers, those who collect, evaluate and communicate information. History graduates leave university with the advantage of a distinctive mix of skills for information-processing. These include:
- time-management
- documentary research
- critical analysis
- evaluation
- critical reasoning
- structuring an argument
- clear written communication
- oral and visual presentations
Other university subjects foster some of these skills, but history puts them together in a flexible package based on facts and real life rather than abstract theory. This gives the history graduate the advantage of having skills with many practical applications in the job-market.
The History Programme at Canterbury has introduced a skills-development programme across all of its undergraduate courses, which enables students to identify their strengths and weaknesses and to build up a range of skills from first-year to second and third-year.
Essays are returned with detailed evaluations, highlighting those areas in need of improvement, and tutors encourage one-to-one interviews to discuss essay planning and evaluation.
Careers with a history degree
It used to be said that the only suitable careers for history graduates were as librarians or teachers, and while some of our graduates still follow these familiar paths, many more find their skills in high demand in a great variety of occupations, and some have risen to the top of their chosen fields.
Historians can be found throughout the Public Sector (government departments) as policy advisers and policy analysts, or in human resources or public relations, in Conservation, Internal Affairs, Health, Justice, Social Welfare, Culture and Heritage, Women's Afffairs, and Foreign Affairs and Trade. (Two of New Zealand's former ambassadors in Asia were History graduates from Canterbury.)
In the Public History field, historians can be found in archives and museums, sometimes at management level, or as researchers in government agencies such as the Waitangi Tribunal, Crown Forestry Rentals Trust or the Office of Treaty Settlements. Other public historians work as contract editors, researchers or writers for the History Group, Ministry of Culture and Heritage, or the NZ Historic Places Trust, or for magazines, newspapers and publishers as journalists or editors. (Canterbury's Diploma in Journalism is an obvious additional qualification here.)
Historians are even to be found in the business world. (One of our graduates became the Director of Canterbury's Master of Business Administration programme.) Our graduates have found managerial positions in advertising, banking, insurance, retailing and tourism. A growing number of lawyers have double degrees in Law and History, as these are closely-related subjects.
The skills of a History degree have wide application, and the wisdom gained from all that vicarious experience of other people's lives make History graduates good administrators and decision-makers.
History graduates work in areas such as:
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Careers with a Postgraduate History Degree
The BA (Hons) or MA in History can lead to jobs like these; recent graduates from Canterbury are working in each of the following:
Archivist |
On the job training at Archives New Zealand or Canterbury Museum |
Historical Researcher |
Crown Forestry Rental Trust |
Journalist |
(on the job training, or Diploma in Journalism), - newspapers: Press, Dominion, etc |
Librarian |
(on the job training, or Library School , Wellington ), - public libraries, university libraries, |
Museum Curator |
(Diploma in Museum Studies, Massey), |
Public Historian |
freelance contract historians for - |
Public Service |
Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
Publishing |
copy editing, marketing, book retailing |
Teaching |
(College of Education Diploma), primary, secondary, polytech |
PhD in History |
Can lead to higher positions of responsibility in any of the above |
or a career as a full-time professional historian in a university history programme, lecturing and writing books.