Great jobs for history majors

257 Pages·2001·1.084 MB·English

by  Julie DeGalan, Stephen E. Lambert

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Second Edition
for
History
Majors
Julie DeGalan
Stephen Lambert
Chicago New York San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City
Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto
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DOI: 10.1036/0071395911
To Amy Caroline, Matt III, Cynthia, Michael, Constance, and Catherine
with all our love.
Special thanks go to Kanako Takei for her assistance in locating useful
websites, and Tamara Pederson, who provided special insight into how to
use historical events to inform the present.
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CONTENTS
Introduction History: The Memory of Things Said and Done vii
PART ONE: THE JOB SEARCH 1
Chapter 1 The Self-Assessment 2
Chapter 2 The Resume and Cover Letter 22
Chapter 3 Researching Careers 47
Chapter 4 Networking 63
Chapter 5 Interviewing 77
Chapter 6 Networking or Interview Follow-Up 87
Chapter 7 Job Offer Considerations 92
Chapter 8 The Graduate School Choice 97
PART TWO: THE CAREER PATHS 109
Chapter 9 Introduction to the History Career Paths 110
Chapter 10 Path 1: Non-Classroom Education 113
Chapter 11 Path 2: Curatorial and Archival Management 136
Chapter 12 Path 3: Information Specialization 160
Chapter 13 Path 4: Business Administration and Management 181
Chapter 14 Path 5: Teaching 208
Index 231
v
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INTRODUCTION
HISTORY: THE MEMORY OF
THINGS SAID AND DONE
—CARL BECKER
C
arl Becker’s definition of history is wonderful because it reminds
us that history is the recollection of humanity. It is what particu-
lar people have recalled about other people. Those recollections,
or memories, are influenced by the rememberers themselves and the influ-
ences and biases of their own lives. Just as the word “memory” conjures up
an idea of something not quite substantial, not entirely reliable and subject
to verification, we need to remember that history is more memory than fact.
For what are the facts? Some would say there is no such thing. Each event
in life recorded as history is subtly altered by the recorder. That individual,
try as he or she might to be objective, alters the record of the event for all
time by filtering it through his or her own mind, with his or her own impres-
sions, perceptions, biases, and judgments. The historian’s choice of words,
selection of topics and features, emphases, and omissions are what ultimately
constitute the “facts.”
Most important for the history major to affirm is the emphasis in this
quotation on humanity, for humanity is the stuff of history—people and their
legacies. Both the participants in the events and the recorders of those events
alike are part of the endless stream of humanity which is the essential sub-
ject of history. And, as with anything human, including dreams, it is subject
to interpretation.
To make sense of this record of humanity is to begin by truly under-
standing events, analyzing and appreciating what has taken place. Docu-
menting the facts may mean collecting the facts from a number of different
observers of the same event. The formal court records of King Henry V, the
letters home from a visiting delegation of French ministers, and the diary of
a lady-in-waiting may all tell very different versions of the same story. The
differences are due to perspective.
vii
viii (cid:1) Introduction
For the historian, the history student, or the history graduate consider-
ing any of the careers in this book, the greatest gift of the study of history
may be the development of a sense of perspective. Perspective is the rare abil-
ity to place people, events, and artifacts in true relation to their setting and
to assign them a sense of their relative importance. Whether it be assessing
the statue of Churchill or Madonna, a Ming vase or the early McDonald’s
roadside architecture, a new business acquisition or a product quality law-
suit, the history major who has learned perspective in his or her academic
studies has earned a lifelong and career-valuable skill.
Truly understanding events and the people who populate them, analyzing
the facts and appreciating fully what has taken place, requires an ability to
synthesize large amounts of information and draw conclusions based on that
information. For example, a study of court cases at the turn of the previous
century in a small southern town, with a population that is overwhelmingly
black, shows that over 90 percent of the court cases involved whites. Obvi-
ously this study could make the beginning of a strong argument that blacks
were not being afforded due legal process in that town at that time.
The ability to understand events, analyze and appreciate what has taken
place, and then synthesize the resulting information to draw conclusions is
essential to the historian and a valuable skill learned in the study of history
with broad application to other areas of endeavor. These abilities are then
combined with a sense of sequence and a natural curiosity to do the neces-
sary detective work. For, when only pieces of evidence appear, extrapolations
must be done relying on others’ evidence or listening and reading others’
accounts and judiciously assessing the information provided.
Hypotheses are drawn, but are only as strong as the care and quality of
the information that has led to them. If you were to listen today to the pre-
sentation of a skilled historical interpreter at Salem, Massachusetts, dis-
cussing the infamous witch trials and compare that to the presentation twenty
years ago, you would find today’s explanation far more tentative. We know
more now about group psychology and “groupthink,” and we have a new
appreciation, through the work of women historians such as Laurel Ulrich,
for the role of women as midwives in colonial America and the enmity that
role earned them from men in the community who disapproved of the silent
power such life-giving skill gave them. The interpretation of the murders of
these women and children has become more psychological, more political,
and more human.
An appropriate metaphor for the historian might be that of the miner,
sifting through the motherlode of human events for the nuggets of signifi-
cance—the historic events, people, and juxtaposition of conditions that affect
humankind. Sifting through much that is undistinguished, the miner comes
to appreciate what is truly worthy of his or her effort.