Being an historian is a fairly complex job or hat to wear. Although some people might think it is as simple as, “study old things” (which I have heard before), it is far more than that. You will need to work within several different skill sets to successfully work as an historian. (And by work, that can mean any variety of things, including teaching, publishing, running a blog or a podcast, etc.) And those are applicable to pretty much every area of life, not only history. These are 5 skills you need to study history, and why they are important!
Communication
If you’ve ever gone to a “History Information Day” of any sort, you have heard a thousand times over that communication is important in history. And that is very true. As an historian, yes, you are researching. However, at the end of the day, you are sharing your research and putting your ideas forward. And that happens through communication.
Both written and oral communication can play a crucial role for the historian. Being a strong and persuasive writer is how you get your point across to your readers. You can’t just keep dumping quotes on your readers- you have to convince them that your interpretation is valuable. This isn’t a stylistic discussion; everyone’s own style and voice is unique, and how I convince someone probably isn’t how you convince someone. But it is a skill that takes work. Oral communication is also key, as you will most likely have to discuss your work at some point. You might be giving a class presentation, you might be presenting at a conference, you might be chatting with someone who has similar interests to you. In any case, being able to discuss your research and analysis is key.
And yes, this is a crucial skill in pretty much any job or setting out there. Do not underestimate the role that communication plays in the professional world, and everyone’s day to day life.
Research
Being able to effectively research a topic, and thoroughly investigate something is a disappearing skill. Yes, people know how to google their question to get a fast answer. However, a lot of what historians are researching doesn’t fit nicely into the top result box on Google. You need to know where you can find sources, what can be sources, and how to actually use sources.
If you have strong secondary and post-secondary instructors, they will teach you how to do this. Part of this skill is down to our own minds. I can’t do math or chemistry to save my life, but I can research a topic and find 30 different sources immediately. The other part, arguably the more important part, is simply practice. The more time you spend researching, the more fluency you gain in it. You look at things differently, you think of new places to look, and you find a way to make it work.
And believe it or not, you will need to research things in life. You might need to research an area or city when you are moving, maybe different cars, or perhaps a work project. In any case, research never ends.
Organisation
Hand in hand with research comes organisation. Depending on your area of study, you may have hundreds or even thousands of sources to analyse and organise for further study and reference. (Henceforth the popular image of the historian working away amongst piles in the archives!)
There is no single, acceptable way to organise your research. And if you ask an historian, you will probably find that they’ve come up with their own unique way to manage their own. There are citation programs and storage databases, but you will find that those are only part of the answer. (Or none- I don’t use either.) Do you want to use Excel to organise your findings? A physical notebook? Photographs of things? There are any number of ways to do it, and any combination might work for you. My only recommendation is that whatever your system ends up being, make sure that you have a safe backup that you frequently use. It doesn’t help to save it to the cloud only- you can get locked out of that account. Saving on the desktop only works if your computer never crashes or fails. Find the organisational system that works for you, and then shore it up.
Adulthood is nothing but organisation. Organising emails, organising taxes, organising your schedule- organisation is crucial!
Languages
This is one skill that seems to be wavering in general- I’ve heard in many different industries and fields that “English is the universal language”. I don’t know that that is 100% true but in regards to the past, it absolutely is not true. There are very few areas of history where the knowledge of an additional language isn’t an asset. Sure, there are translations done, but you are relying on someone else’s work and understanding for your own analysis. If you are studying European history within the last 800 or so years, French is quite useful. Medieval and earlier? Latin and Greek are also usually a solid bet. (Although I no longer work in medieval history, my Latin is still useful.) And the list goes on- languages help! Don’t feel like if you aren’t entirely fluent in a language, it won’t help. Even knowing just the basics can help you identify documents and at least begin parsing. (Spending even a few moments a day on DuoLingo or something similar can go a long way!)
Creativity
People might not always think it, but studying history requires an awful lot of creativity. For your starting point, you often need to come up with a new topic. I’ve had some professors who have allowed more popular topics, like Henry VIII and his wives, but they required the student to come up with a novel question or approach. No one wants to read the same thing over and over again- the historian must set out to answer a different question or bring a new element to the discussion.
As an historian, you also need to be creative with sources more often than not. Sometimes they don’t exist, sometimes they never existed, sometimes they do exist but you can’t get access to them. (The languages can help with that, sometimes.) Although you might have set out to use newspapers as a source, maybe you can also use television shows as another source. Whatever your project is, there are sources that you can use- you just need to be creative about finding them and using them.
Creativity also applies to your thesis/question- sometimes instead of digging for sources that aren’t there, you need to adjust the question you are asking to suit the sources that you do have. And of course, creative solutions are a part of life.
Interested in more history posts?
Why You Need to Study a New Area of History
Academic History vs. Pop History
5 Ways to Get Involved With History
In your opinion, what are the skills you need to study history?
Cheers,
The Historian
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