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Historians

Exploring This Job

Reading about history is a great way to find out if this career is for you. You might want to pick up a copy of Careers for Students of History, which is published by the American Historical Association (AHA), the National Council on Public History (NCPH), and the Public History Program at the University of South Carolina. The book profiles history-related careers in education, museums and archives, publishing, historic preservation, government, and consulting. To learn more about Careers for Students of History, visit the AHA Web site, https://www.historians.org/resource/careers-for-students-of-history. Careers for History Majors (https://www.historians.org/resource/careers-for-history-majors) is another useful resource.

Check out podcasts (https://www.oah.org/podcasts) that are offered by the Organization of American Historians to learn more about the field.

You can also learn a great deal about a career as a historian by talking to your history teachers or arranging interviews with historians working in local museums or universities. You can experiment with research in the field of history by developing your own history projects, such as tracing the genealogy of your family, researching the history of your neighborhood, or analyzing the development of a favorite sports team. By seeking the advice of your history teacher while working on these projects, you will get a good feel for doing real research and drawing conclusions based on the historical information you have discovered.