Explore the past, and through it, shape the future.
Past is Prologue
At Purchase, history isn’t just about knowing what has happened; it’s about understanding it. It’s about figuring out how society works and where we fit into it. If you’re looking to untangle the complexities of the world, a major in history might just be for you.
Gain Valuable Skills
Far more than the mere memorization of dates and events, history is a living world waiting for us to set it free. Its study presents the opportunity to discover new stuff, generate original insights, revise the conventional view, and influence the world in which we live.
Whether you become a professional historian or not, majoring in history will give you the knowledge, analytical skills, and perspective you need to make the most of your journey into the future.
Proof of Purchase
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Special Effects + Pyrotechnician -
Historian, Author, Content Manager -
Journalist
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Litigation Attorney -
Senior Staff Writer
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Policy Strategist -
LMSW
News:
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Assistant Professor of History Jessica Levy Receives NEH Grant
The competitive National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipends support humanities scholars in undertaking archival research for books and articles.
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Elizabeth Hyman ’11 Signs Deal With Harper Perennial
The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto: A Female Military History of the Warsaw Ghetto and its Uprising, a narrative history, will be published in 2025.
Upcoming:
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Sep
24
Dealing with Literary Antisemitism
Time: 7:00pmStephen Greenblatt (Ph.D. Yale) is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. Also General Editor of The Norton Shakespeare, he is the author of eleven books, including The Swerve: How the World Became Modern; Shakespeare’s Freedom; Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare; Hamlet in Purgatory; Practicing New Historicism; Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World;and Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture. He has edited seven collections of criticism, including Cultural Mobility: A Manifesto, and is a founding coeditor of the journal Representations. His honors include the MLA’s James Russell Lowell Prize for Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England, the Distinguished Humanist Award from the Mellon Foundation, the Wilbur Cross Medal from the Yale University Graduate School, the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre, the Erasmus Institute Prize, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of California, Berkeley. He was president of the Modern Language Association of America and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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Nov
18
A Woman is Responsible for Everything
Time: 7:00pmProfessor Elisheva Carlebach, Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture, and Society, specializes in the cultural, intellectual, and religious history of the Jews in Early Modern Europe.
