Department of History

History, as a domain of knowledge, embraces all past human activity. There is no phenomenon without history. Historians endeavor to discover and organize facts about people and events and to create from them meaningful explanations and narratives.

Through a series of introductory and advanced courses, history majors become familiar with past knowledge, the forces of change, and the varieties of historical scholarship dealing with societies throughout the world. They also learn to collect, evaluate, organize, and interpret evidence, and to present it in oral and written forms.

Students with grounding in historical knowledge possess the central core of an excellent liberal arts education which may be used in numerous ways, including active citizenship, graduate school, and various occupations.

The Department of History offers a major that leads to a bachelor of arts degree and a minor for students majoring in other disciplines. The major consists of 39 credit hours in history plus a foreign language requirement. The minor consists of 18 credit hours in history. In addition, the Department offers an internship pro-gram in cooperation with area historical societies, museums, libraries, and other institutions.

Majors should, after consultation with an advisor, focus at least three of their history electives (300-level courses) upon a particular country, continent, era, or theme of their choosing and select courses from other departments that complements this concentration.

College Level Equivalency Program (CLEP) examinations are available in Western Civilization and United States History. Unusually well-prepared entering students who pass one or more of these examinations may substitute 300-level course(s) for the HTY 101/102 and/or HTY 131/132 introductory surveys.

A history major or minor must achieve at least six credits of B or better grades in history courses. No grade of D will count toward fulfillment of a history major or minor. No required course may be repeated more than once. Majors and minors are reminded that, in addition to Department requirements, they must also meet those of the University Core curriculum.  

For further information or problems with this page, contact:
history@usm.maine.edu