Bachelor [History] From Mount Holyoke College

History is a critical and analytical method of inquiry into our collective past based on our cumulative experience, informed understanding, and careful judgment. It teaches us to look beyond appearance, to evaluate something with clarity and disinterest, to discover and investigate all the causes of an event and evaluate their relative importance. History teaches how to discern the relationship between cause and effect, to analyze motives, to determine agency and assign responsibility, and to understand change over time. These general habits of sorting through the past allow us to appreciate the profound differences between ourselves and others and to imagine (and to some degree experience) the world as men and women have in times now lost and in places we shall never see.

There are a number of ways to study history at Mount Holyoke. The simplest is by taking a course, which many students do to satisfy general interest in the subject; to explore a particular time period, region or theme; to fulfill the College?s distribution requirements (for Division I Humanities); or because a history course is required or encouraged in other programs. Indeed, the history department contributes to a number of related majors, including Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, Africana Studies, International Relations, Gender Studies and Environmental Studies.