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… People choose to study history not to get a certain job, but to become a certain kind of person. At age eighteen or at age twenty-one, no one can possibly know the contours or range of the challenges, choices and opportunities he or she will face in a career or lifetime, and the study of history offers some of the best preparation in any undergraduate course of study for a meaningful life. The rigors of historical study prepare all who sincerely apply themselves to actively and thoughtfully engage the complexity of the world.

History really happens in two places. One is the past, from which we get our documents and records. The other far more important is in the mind of the historian, who must sift the evidence and create a responsible and coherent story. Students of history realize quickly that human experience is complex and often contradictory. We (faculty and students alike) examine original documents and we read what other historians have said to define for ourselves the meaning of the American Revolution, the nature of the Cold War or the world of a medieval peasant. We learn quickly to refuse simple explanations and are exhilarated by the chance to apply our intellects and sensibilities to difficult problems. We also learn the humility that comes with the realization that our best explanations are imperfect, and in this process we come closer to a definition of what it means to be a human being.

Sound profound? This is what we do in the history department, and it is an intensely active process of intellectual inquiry. We offer few answers but will pose questions for you that will last a lifetime. In learning the craft of history, you will exercise your mind in ways you did not think possible.

Then when you sit before any potential employer you can say that your undergraduate course of study taught you to weigh evidence, think critically, and come to thoughtful, balanced conclusions about complex and difficult issues. You can say that you learned to think and write clearly, two of the most important skills employers of all kinds seek. You can say that it taught you that there is always something else to learn, something else to understand. As the velocity of change in our world increases, employers hire sets of skills but they mainly hire individuals who can grow and adapt to changing circumstances and realities. Few understand these imperatives as do students of history.

History teaches all of us that the best intentions sometimes go awry, that people are capable of majestic achievement and squalid failure, and that we can unravel some problems while others defy resolution. Come with us for one course, or for a minor, or for a major, and be ready to take from any historical study at Millikin University the satisfaction that only comes from creating and thinking on your own.

-Dr. Kevin Murphy
Chair of the History Department, Millikin University

“To study history is always to seek in some degree to get beyond the limitations and preoccupations of the present; it demands for success an effort of self-transcendence.”
--Arthur  O. Lovejoy, 1939