Through clear graphs and informal prose, readers will find hard data, practical advice, and answers to common questions about the study of history and the value it affords to individuals, their workplaces, and their communities. A resource for intellectual exploration and personal inspiration, it includes a statement shaped by cooperating faculty at over 100 colleges and universities describing the abilities and habits of mind that students develop in history programs at diverse institutions. The booklet’s contributors include alumni working in a wide range of fields and occupations as well as professional historians. Together, they suggest ways that today’s college students can prepare themselves to bring historical thinking to bear in solving tomorrow’s problems.

Current and prospective students, and their families, will discover an array of useful materials inside, as will career and academic advisers, faculty, program administrators, and staff. General readers can explore statistics, personal stories, and reflections on the many ways that a disciplined knowledge of the past—as well as the skills it takes to understand and communicate that past—empowers individuals to contribute and thrive in their academic, work, and civic lives.

For more resources from the American Historical Association, please visit historians.org/whystudyhistory.