The profession of a historian is the sophisticated practice of critical inquiry, essential to understanding the present and shaping future decisions. Historians apply a rigorous, evidence-based methodology to investigate the human experience across time and space. This role informs public policy, preserves cultural memory, and contributes to institutional knowledge across diverse environments.
Defining the Professional Historian
A professional historian is distinguished by a systematic methodology, adherence to historical theory, and a commitment to evidence-based interpretation. The core function involves analyzing primary sources—firsthand accounts, artifacts, and original documents—and secondary sources to construct nuanced arguments about the past. This requires a deep understanding of historiography, the study of how history is written and interpreted over time.
Professional practice involves approaching sources with skepticism, critically evaluating their authenticity, bias, and context. Historians use their findings to challenge, revise, or support existing historical narratives. This systematic process of research and interpretation qualifies the work as a professional endeavor, often requiring advanced degrees.
Diverse Employment Sectors for Historians
Academia and Higher Education
Historians in academia primarily focus on research, publication, and teaching at colleges and universities. These roles require extensive original research to produce scholarly monographs and peer-reviewed articles that advance historical knowledge. Faculty positions involve teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, advising students, and participating in departmental governance. The work balances specialized archival investigation with the public presentation of complex ideas to diverse student audiences.
Museums and Archival Institutions
In museums, historical societies, and archival institutions, historians focus on public history, curation, and preservation. Museum historians, often acting as curators, manage collections, design educational exhibits, and write interpretive materials for the public. Archivists and records managers preserve original documents and digital records, ensuring accessibility for future researchers and maintaining institutional memory. Their work centers on the preservation of historical evidence and its interpretation for a non-specialist audience.
Government and Public Service
Government historians work across federal, state, and local agencies, applying their research skills to public policy and institutional memory. Major employers include organizations like the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), with roles in military history, legislative research, and historical preservation offices. These professionals conduct research on specific events or policies to provide historical context that informs current governmental decisions. They often write internal reports and official histories of government activities or programs.
Corporate and Non-Profit Organizations
Historians increasingly find roles in the corporate and non-profit sectors, often focused on maintaining organizational history and institutional memory. Companies hire historians to research and document their origins and evolution, using this information for branding, internal training, and public relations. Other roles include historical consulting for legal teams, where historians provide expert testimony on historical context, or for media production companies developing historically accurate content. The ability to conduct deep research and synthesize information for practical purposes makes this a growing sector.
Core Responsibilities and Daily Duties
The daily work of a historian is anchored in the meticulous gathering and evaluation of historical data from various sources. This involves spending significant time in archives, libraries, and special collections to locate and scrutinize primary sources like diaries and government records. A primary duty is source criticism, analyzing documents to determine their authenticity, reliability, and significance to the historical question.
Historians organize, analyze, and interpret this complex information to trace developments in a specific field or time period. The ultimate professional output is the clear communication of findings, whether through writing scholarly articles, books, or reports, or by preparing public presentations. They translate specialized research into compelling and accessible narratives for diverse audiences, from academic peers to the general public.
Essential Educational Requirements
A Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in History provides foundational knowledge and research skills, but it is typically only the starting point for a career historian. For most professional positions outside of higher education, such as in museums, archives, or government agencies, a Master’s degree (MA) in History or a related field like Public History is often the minimum requirement. The MA program typically lasts two years and focuses on advanced coursework, specialized seminars, and a thesis demonstrating original research capability.
A Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) is mandatory for those seeking tenure-track faculty positions at universities and for many top research roles. Doctoral programs involve several years of intensive coursework, comprehensive examinations, and the completion of a book-length dissertation based on original archival research. This advanced degree prepares a historian for a research-intensive career where they contribute original scholarship to their field.
Necessary Skills for Success in History Careers
Success in a history career relies on advanced critical and transferable skills that complement formal academic training. Foremost among these is rigorous analytical ability, enabling the professional to assess complex, sometimes contradictory, evidence and evaluate its authority. Historians must possess exceptional written communication skills to construct clear, evidence-based arguments and narratives for both scholarly and public consumption.
Verbal communication skills are equally important for teaching, presenting research at conferences, and engaging with the public. Depending on the specialization, proficiency in foreign languages may be necessary for working with primary source documents. Specialized research methods, such as paleography or digital humanities skills for data management, are also highly valued.
Career Outlook and Typical Compensation
The job market for historians is characterized by steady, though slower than average, growth. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a two percent employment increase from 2024 to 2034, with approximately 300 openings projected each year. While academic tenure-track positions are highly competitive, demand remains consistent in government, public history, and private consulting sectors for skilled researchers and analysts.
Compensation varies significantly based on sector, experience, and educational attainment. The median annual wage for historians was $74,050 in May 2024. The lowest ten percent of earners made less than $38,630, while the highest ten percent earned more than $128,500. Historians working for the federal government or in top-tier academic research positions typically command salaries at the higher end of the scale.