History Thesis

Congratulations! You got into grad school and the program of your choice, secured an advisor, and now it’s time to write your history thesis.

First Things First

When you tackle your history thesis, you have to decide first what topic you want to tackle for a year or more of your life. No easy decision. Your history thesis title (and topic) will follow you everywhere you go in your career in the form of your transcript of, most likely, your ‘specialty’. Few history students are hotel magnates in the making, so chances are that when you choose your history thesis topic, you are also choosing the foundation for a lifetime of research and study.

Common History Thesis Topics Include:

• Oral History
• Religious History
• Art History
• Economic History
• American History
• European History
• African History
• Asian History
• Women’s History
• Western Civilization History
• Medieval History
• Renaissance History
• Modern History
• Interdisciplinary – ex. History of Eastern Philosophy

When you’ve chosen your topic, be sure to narrow it down as much as possible. Focus is extremely important as your history thesis needs to be a very tight, polished 30-40 pages upon completion. For example, you want to choose something like Religious History of the Early Pennsylvania Dutch as opposed to just Religious History. You may want to take that one step further and choose a character in history, a set of laws, or an even more specific region or section of years and research the impact on the movement as a whole.

If at all possible, choose a history thesis topic that moves the awareness of your chosen subject matter forward. If you have to write a history thesis, there’s no reason why you can’t write a groundbreaking, informative paper that you can present at conferences and have published in a peer reviewed journal.

Outline It

Now that you’ve chosen a great, specific topic that intrigues you, it’s time to get down to brass tacks. Create a prospectus or proposal that is between 3 and 5 pages long. Spend a good deal of time on this document. When you feel that you have gone over until you know it thoroughly and have considered every possible option, approach, and detail, take it to your advisor for approval. You want to feel secure in your understanding of your chosen topic when you bring your proposal to the first meeting. To be sure that this happens, you will need to spend a substantial amount of time in the initial research so that you have a good understanding of what already exists in the field on your topic and what you are bringing to the discipline by writing your thesis.

Research

A history thesis is all about research, research, research, and more research. And documentation. As you read, make copies of the pages that you will be using. Apologize to the trees that your killing and yourself for the extra school loan you will have to take out to cover the dump truck of change that you will be dropping into your library’s photocopying machine, but you have to do this. It is imperative for correct documentation and you will thank yourself for it later when you create your bibliography or works cited page.

Whenever possible, use original or ‘primary’ research. This means that you want to look at articles written in academic journals as opposed to hobby or enthusiast magazines. The author should always be a historian or, in the case of an historical figure, the person who you are researching him or herself. Diaries, letters, and official documents that have been verified as authentically authored by your subject are premium resources. Next, newspapers or documents of the time period which refer to your subject matter are best. After that, and especially in the cases of ancient history, papers and books written by experts on the subject are the best choice.

Write

Actually, this is the easy part. Turn off the phone, take off from work, and give as much uninterrupted time to your history thesis as possible.

Tips

• This is your thesis. Take control. Take initiative. Ask questions, ask for help, and make the final decisions. It’s your degree and your life. Don’t let anyone take the reins out of your hands.
• Remember to keep a copy of your department’s particular guidelines by your side at all times. The last thing you want to do is realize after you’ve finished that you’ve forgotten a major and necessary component.
• Don’t procrastinate. This is true for almost everything in your academic career, but especially when it comes to preparing and writing your history thesis. You need to time to think, to write, to confer with advisors, to read, to re-write, to edit.
• Don’t worry about the defense. Prepare. The department committee members don’t have to agree with you, but they do have to concede that your point is well researched and you have done a thorough job in researching your topic.