History Is Not a Useless Major: Fighting Myths with Data

Perspectives on History, the news magazine of the American Historical Association, recently published findings on the job outcomes of students who graduated with an undergraduate degree in history, titled “History is Not a Useless Major“. Contrary to popular myths, history majors are not underemployed or paid less than graduates in other fields. The article concludes, “Majoring in history does not doom a graduate to a life of unemployment or under­employment. In fact, history majors go on to become much better educated than the average person, filling roles in a wider range of careers than holders of many other degrees. The worst that can be said of this situation is that many of those careers are socially undervalued. But that does not mean that a degree in history is any less valuable.”