HISTORY11 History

What is History?

History is the study of how and why the human condition has varied over time, in relationship to dynamic factors such as culture and environment. The goal of history is to comprehend the diversity and richness of the past, rather than to simplify it to an average model. Historians learn to interpret evidence from the past to shed light on ideas, decisions, behaviours and their impacts, and to explain how and why they differed from place to place. The history of concepts, cultures, communities and ecosystems helps us to understand the processes that produced the contemporary world, such as how standard assumptions can become unstable, and what factors have produced conflicts over resources or ideological superiority. Historians also come to understand how the past is continuously used and re-used by contemporary societies to make sense of the present. While historians usually value learning about the past for its own sake, this knowledge is equally critical for recognising the patterns that shape current possibilities for social, political and environmental change. 

Forget any preconceived notions of remembering a lot of dates and facts. Choose history to satisfy your curiosity about how the present world came to be, and your desire to delve deeply into familiar and unfamiliar lives. Studying history will equip you with key knowledge and skills for addressing the wicked problems of our time, the capacity to understand how a range of human responses to them can coexist, and the tools to analyse and explain them for others. 

At Monash, studying history is grounded in close engagement with contemporary documents, objects and images, known as primary sources, from the periods we study. Using these tools, students work with experts whose research is building new knowledge about the past in four key focus areas: nations and empires; society and justice; environment, health, science and technology; and the world in the medieval and Renaissance period. Students can choose to build expertise intensively in one of these areas, or sample broadly across them, to make the History major their own.

Availability
History is listed in A2000 Bachelor of Arts at Caulfield and Clayton as a minor and a major, and in A0502 Diploma of Liberal Arts at Caulfield and Clayton as a major.