History University of Cape Town

Overview

Why consider a major in History?

We help you appreciate every facet of life as part of a broader and more complex context. Where others see chaos, confusion and randomness, history students recognise patterns, processes and interconnections. Along with very useful technical skills, students of this Department develop a remarkable aptitude for original thinking, cogent reasoning, persuasive writing, and critical analysis. This allows them to become some of the most sophisticated decision-makers in their age-group. It is no surprise therefore that very different kinds of employers – law firms, media houses, advertising agencies, NGOs, government bodies, even finance companies – look so favourably upon our graduates.

Yes. More than anybody else, students in the History programme at the University of Cape Town as a rule are better trained in examining the bigger picture, in efficiently analysing data, in elegantly and competently navigating their way through conflicting versions and uncertain information. But that does not mean that history is not cool or that the discipline has a “geeks only” board attached at its entrance. History is also fun. The practice of the historical craft is entertaining, exciting and captivating. There are many different levels of excitement. In the archives you get to act as a detective, solving age-old mysteries that no one had been able to crack before. In oral history sessions you get a rich opportunity for human interaction which very few disciplines can offer: you can support the ordinary, disadvantaged, marginalized people to narrate their experiences in their own words. Through your research you can make a real difference in policy and/or in community life. Your concrete knowledge of the past, sharpened by your trained capacity for informed generalisations, will make you a much sought-after graduate to a wide range of professional fields including but also far beyond the academic sector. And, finally, there is always the unparalleled delight of knowing something original, of visiting a time that most others have forgotten about, of discovering one’s own beginnings in the most unsuspected of places.