Studying History
When you choose to study history at Princeton, you choose an undergraduate experience that prepares you to be a thoughtful scholar. As a large, flexible department, we offer you the opportunity to truly explore your interests. As to where you take it, that part is up to you. The paths our alumni take are many, but all have benefitted from their time spent with the Department.
Life As a History Major
History majors must take ten courses in the Department: one 200- or 300-level prerequisite, the Junior Seminar (History 400), and eight other departmental courses.
Among the departmental courses, majors must take one in each four thematic areas: Knowledge & Belief, Power & Conflict, Pre-Modern (pre-1700), Race & Difference. In addition, students are required to take at least two courses that are principally focused on Africa, Asia, Latin America, or the Middle East. Courses taken to fulfill the thematic and geographical requirements may overlap. History courses taken in the first and sophomore years are counted among the ten required for graduation.
In stages, majors advance toward the writing of the 75-page senior thesis based on original historical research. The History Department offers financial support, on a competitive basis, to seniors who travel to conduct archival research. In past years, the Department has supported travel to Germany, England, and South Africa.
Thesis titles in recent years include:
- “Planning the Model City: Citizen Participation and Neighborhood Politics in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine”
- “Cinema as a Cultural Archive: Women, Punjabiyat and the Nation in Film during Zia's Pakistan”
- “Painting the Nuremberg Trial: Laura Knight's 1946 Official Commission”
- “Grant Us Peace: American Catholic Activism During the Vietnam War”
- “Making Sense of Icy Times: Early Cold War Science in Alaska and the Founding Years of the Arctic Research Laboratory”
- “Cursed Peace, Blessed Peacemakers: A Revisionist Account of the Treaty of Paris (1783)”
- “The Struggle for Belonging in Medieval China: Refugees in the Tang Dynasty”
Explore more History senior theses in Mudd Library or check out prize-winning theses from 2024, 2023, and 2022.
Historic image of Dickinson Hall circa 1930s
Major Prerequisites
Plan your path to majoring in history. View prerequisites.
How to Sign In / Declare
Get a step-by-step overview of how to sign in and declare your concentration.
Explore History 400 Seminars
Your History 400 Junior Seminar will mark your first step towards engaging with the kind of historical research you will conduct for your senior thesis.
Undergraduate Program Administrator
Director of Undergraduate Studies
