What is required of a student pursuing a history PhD? How many history PhDs should universities grant? Once a PhD is obtained, what’s next? Scholars have struggled with these questions since the birth of professional history.  Below, culled from the AHA’s archives, are past articles from scholars who’ve reflected on many of these issues.

• The Requirements For the Historical Doctorate in America
  In an article from the 1893 AHA Annual Report, Ephraim Emerton outlines what subjects, from linguistic training to economic science, he believes to be the most important requirements for a student pursuing a PhD in history.
• Productivity of Doctors of Philosophy in History
  Marcus W. Jernegan examines in this article from the October 1927 issue of the American Historical Review, the obstacles those with PhDs in history face when publishing their research.
• Doctors of Philosophy in History: A Statistical Study
  A 1942 report by William B. Hesseltine and Louis Kaplan, published in the American Historical Review, analyzes the number of history PhDs, historical fields, occupations of historians, and more.

And for a more recent view of history PhDs see The Education of Historians for the Twenty-first Century (2004). Find all of the reports above, as well as links to the AHA’s presidential addresses, annual reports, and the GI Roundtable series in the History and Archives section of the AHA web site.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.