History majors at Simpson pursue a balanced program, taking twelve courses in the areas of United States, European, world, and minority history.  They conclude their history program with a capstone course, a senior seminar in Historiography.  Team-taught, this course examines the development of the discipline of history, surveys possible careers for history majors, and provides the first step for those interested in graduate study. 

Skills that history majors develop include writing, oral communication, critical reading, and the ability to coalesce information from a variety of sources into a brief analysis. Faculty members utilize a variety of pedagogical methods to achieve these ends. Most history courses at Simpson are small discussion-based classes. These take a variety of forms ranging from seminars to fieldwork in the archives, to role-playing simulations. In recent years history professors have also led history-themed May Term trips to Great Britain, Ireland, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. 

Much of the work of history depends upon developing the ability to read sources with a critical eye. In the course of developing a history major, you will read a wide variety of texts ranging from great books of the western tradition like Homer’s Iliad, Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents, and Dante’s Inferno, to less orthodox works like comic books from the 1950s, eyewitness reports of the conquest of the Aztecs, and firsthand accounts by women in the French resistance during the Second World War. 

Many Simpson students with degrees in history go on to teach high school, but a majority of them do not. Some continue their studies in law school or seminary. Others go on to graduate work in history, museum studies, business, or library science. Recent history majors pursue a variety of careers including college administration, publishing, journalism, management, business, public administration, and politics. Graduates also work in government including the Attorney General’s office, the Governor’s Office, Peace Corps, Vista, and different branches of the military. Simpson’s history majors also go off in unpredictable directions. They include a singer-songwriter who regularly tours with his band, and a pit boss in a casino.