Why Major in History?
Studying history helps us understand the complexities of this modern, globalized world. Students develop critical thinking skills, learn to write persuasively, and deepen their cultural awareness. While some graduates go on to study history at a graduate level, others thrive in professions such as law, business, government, journalism, and teaching.
History Department Programs
Grounded in Boston College's renowned liberal arts tradition, the history major offers a robust grounding in the contemporary practice of history that will prepare you to address the challenges of the present.
The six-course minor in history includes two core courses, two electives, and two upper-division history courses, offering the opportunity to delve into a particular region or period of interest.
Our graduate programs attract talented students from across the U.S. and the world. The M.A. prepares students for careers in public history, education, and beyond, while the Ph.D. produces leading scholars.
Email the director of undergraduate studies, Prof. Penelope Ismay, or schedule an appointment to learn more and get answers to your questions.
News and Notes
María de los Ángeles Picone's new book Landscaping Patagonia Spatial History and Nation-Making in Chile and Argentina
Landscaping Patagonia
Spatial History and Nation-Making in Chile and Argentina
In late nineteenth-century Latin America, governments used new scientific, technological, and geographical knowledge not only to consolidate power and protect borders but also to define the physical contours of their respective nations. Chilean and Argentine authorities in particular attempted to transform northern Patagonia, a space they perceived as "desert," through a myriad of nationalizing policies, from military campaigns to hotels. But beyond the urban governing halls of Chile and Argentina, explorers, migrants, local authorities, bandits, and visitors also made sense of the nation by inhabiting the physical space of the northern Patagonian Andes. They surveyed passes, opened roads, claimed land titles or leases, traveled miles to the nearest police station, rode miles on horseback to escape the police, and hiked the landscape.
María de los Ángeles Picone tells the story of how people living, governing, and traveling through northern Patagonia sought to construct versions of Chile and Argentina based on their ideas about and experiences in geographical space in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By repositioning the analytical focus from Santiago and Buenos Aires to northern Patagonia, Picone reveals how a wide array of actors, with varying degrees of political, economic, and social power, assigned distinctive—and sometimes conflicting—meanings to space and national identity.
About the Author
María de los Ángeles Picone is assistant professor of history at Boston College.
Stacie A. Kent's new book Coercive Commerce Global Capital and Imperial Governance at the End of the Qing Empire
Coercive CommerceGlobal Capital and Imperial Governance at the End of the Qing Empire
An extensive analysis of the development of capital in Qing Empire China.
In 1842, the Qing Empire signed a watershed commercial treaty with Great Britain, beginning a century-long period in which geopolitical and global economic entanglements intruded on Qing territory and governance. Previously understood as an era of “semi-colonialism,” Stacie A. Kent reframes this century of intervention by shedding light on the generative force of global capital.
Based on extensive research, conducted with British and Chinese government archives, Coercive Commerce shows how commercial treaties and the regulatory regime that grew out of them catalyzed a revised arts of governance in Qing-administered China. Capital, which had long been present in Chinese merchants’ pocketbooks, came to shape and even govern Chinese statecraft during the “treaty era.” This book contends that Qing administrators alternately resisted and adapted to this new reality through taxation systems such as transit passes and the Imperial Maritime Customs Service by reorganizing Chinese territory into a space where global circuits of capital could circulate and reproduce at an ever greater scale.
Offering a deep dive into the coercive nature of capitalism and the historically specific ways global capital reproduction took root in Qing China, Coercive Commerce will interest historians of capital and modern China alike.
About the Author
Stacie A. Kent is assistant professor of history at Boston College.
Joshua Donovan in The Washington Post
The Washington Post article
Christians in Aleppo fear for their future after Islamist takeover
-- December 6, 2024
Joshua Donovan
Visiting Assistant Professor of History
Boston College
Nicole Eaton receives the Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History for 'German Blood, Slavic Soil: How Nazi Königsberg Became Soviet Kalinigrad'
"Nicole Eaton's 2023 book, German Blood, Slavic Soil: How Nazi Königsberg Became Soviet Kaliningrad—an examination of the Baltic Sea port city’s ordeal through brutal 20th-century geopolitics—was the winner of the Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History, presented annually by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies for an outstanding monograph published on Russia, Eastern Europe, or Eurasia in the field of history. ASEEES also awarded her an honorable mention for the W. Bruce Lincoln Book Prize, which recognizes an author’s first published monograph or scholarly synthesis that is of exceptional merit and lasting significance for the understanding of Russia’s past.
In addition, Eaton received an honorable mention for the German Studies Association DAAD/GSA Prize for the Best Book in History and Social Science."
by Sean Smith | University Communications | November 2024
On Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, President Biden visited Nantucket Books and purchased a copy of “Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America” by Prof. Heather Cox Richardson, who interviewed Biden at the White House last year.
News article in wbur.org/news
ABOUT DEMOCRACY AWAKENING
New York Times Bestseller
“Engaging and highly accessible.”—Boston Globe
“A vibrant, and essential history of America’s unending, enraging and utterly compelling struggle since its founding to live up to its own best ideals… It’s both a cause for hope, and a call to arms.”–Jane Mayer, author Dark Money
From historian and author of the popular daily newsletter LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN, a vital narrative that explains how America, once a beacon of democracy, now teeters on the brink of autocracy — and how we can turn back.
In the midst of the impeachment crisis of 2019, Heather Cox Richardson launched a daily Facebook essay providing the historical background of the daily torrent of news. It soon turned into a newsletter and its readership ballooned to more than 2 million dedicated readers who rely on her plainspoken and informed take on the present and past in America.
In Democracy Awakening, Richardson crafts a compelling and original narrative, explaining how, over the decades, a small group of wealthy people have made war on American ideals. By weaponizing language and promoting false history they have led us into authoritarianism — creating a disaffected population and then promising to recreate an imagined past where those people could feel important again. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation’s true history that marginalized Americans have always upheld. Their dedication to the principles on which this nation was founded has enabled us to renew and expand our commitment to democracy in the past. Richardson sees this history as a roadmap for the nation’s future.
Richardson’s talent is to wrangle our giant, meandering, and confusing news feed into a coherent story that singles out what we should pay attention to, what the precedents are, and what possible paths lie ahead. In her trademark calm prose, she is realistic and optimistic about the future of democracy. Her command of history allows her to pivot effortlessly from the Founders to the abolitionists to Reconstruction to Goldwater to Mitch McConnell, highlighting the political legacies of the New Deal, the lingering fears of socialism, the death of the liberal consensus and birth of “movement conservatism.”
Many books tell us what has happened over the last five years. Democracy Awakening explains how we got to this perilous point, what our history really tells us about ourselves, and what the future of democracy can be.SEE LESS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Heather Cox Richardson is Professor of History at Boston College. She has written about the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the American West in award-winning books whose subjects stretch from the European settlement of the North American continent to the history of the Republican Party through the Trump administration. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Guardian, among other outlets. She is the cohost of the Vox podcast, Now & Then.
Heather Cox Richardson receives Tikkun Olam Award
Award for Scholarly and Professional Distinction
Tikkun Olam Prize for Promoting Public Historical Literacy
[Note: the formal translation of Tikkun Olam is “to repair the world.”]
The Tikkun Olam Prize for Promoting Public Historical Literacy addresses a major problem in American public culture, which inhibits the operation of democratic institutions, and processes: the breadth and depth of historical illiteracy. This prize honors individuals whose work has promoted literacy in public culture, with the abiding hope that such work will indeed help “to repair the world.” We look for sustained historical work that contributes significantly to historical literacy (defined as “meaningful knowledge about the past, historical context, and ability to think historically and critically”) in American public culture, with an emphasis on history education (broadly construed) beyond the academy.
Show More
Heather Cox Richardson receives Baldacci Award
Ken Burns presented the Authors Guild award for literary activism to Professor of History Heather Cox Richardson, author of numerous acclaimed history books—including her latest, Democracy Awakening—and the popular daily newsletter "Letters from an American." BC News
Scholars of the College 2024
Our five Scholars of the College at the awards dinner Monday night: Nick Yustin (advisor: Mike Glass), Shruthi Sriram (advisors: Eddie Bonilla and Nicole Eaton), Anna Davis (advisor: Prasannan Parthasarathi), Annie Liu (advisor: Eddie Bonilla), and Neal Bold (advisor: Oliver Rafferty).
In amazing news, Neal Bold won the McCarthy Prize for his thesis, “The Antiochene Renaissance: New Culture on the Twelfth-Century Latin Frontier.” The McCarthy Prize is given annually to the best thesis in all of the Humanities across Boston College, as judged by a panel of faculty members.
Please help me in congratulating Neal and Prasannan!!
Congratulations!
Show MoreA Conversation with the President
At the invitation of the White House, Professor of History Heather Cox Richardson, author of the newsletter "Letters from an American," talked with President Joe Biden about American democracy in the 21st century.
Student Mentors
Whether you’re a major, a minor, or just want to know more about the department from a student’s point of view, Student Mentors are here to help. Please feel free to get in touch!
Alex Fisher Alex Fisher
Alex Fisher
Class of 2025
Class Year: 2025
Hometown: Lisle, Illinois
Majors Other Than History: Political Science
Minors / Other Concentration: Philosophy
Email: fisheraz@bc.edu
Adding a History major was, initially, a tough decision for me, but it turned into one of the best things I have done at BC. I have loved all of my History professors, classes, and classmates, as well as the opportunities they have afforded me to explore my historical interests—and areas of study I have never experienced before. The excellence of the BC History Department is in the opportunities it affords you to learn about the world and cultivate personal passions. I would love to help mentor students contemplating whether History is for them in addition to History lovers looking for course insights!
Jayne McGuire Jayne McGuire
Jayne McGuire
Class of 2025
Class Year: 2025
Hometown: Norfolk, MA
Majors Other Than History: Political Science
Minors / Other Concentration: Journalism
Email: mcguirjj@bc.edu
My favorite class was U.S. Political History since 1968, taught by Professor Glass! Being in this course allowed me to question why women were so limited in both educational and professional opportunities. Through reading books such as Bruce Schulman’s The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics or Nancy MacLean’s The American Women’s Movement, 1945-2000: A Brief History with Documents, I began to understand all the different ways people view historial events. I recognize that there is more than one way to interpret history, and through reading the works of multiple historians, I see how historians pull concepts and ideas, and articulate their understanding of history, which serves as explanations of the past. By studying the past and interpreting history on my own, I will use it to guide my curiosity in the future. I plan to use what I have learned to mentor younger students who major in History and to show them that they should always question the world around them. I hope I can motivate students to have intellectual curiosity, just like my professors have inspired me to.
Luke Sutton Luke Sutton
Luke Sutton
Class of 2026
Class Year: 2026
Hometown: Clarendon Hills, IL
Majors Other Than History: Finance and Business Analytics
Email: suttonlb@bc.edu
Initially studying finance and business analytics at Boston College, I rediscovered my love for history after taking an upper-level elective in the first semester of my freshman year. I chose to pick up a double major in history to fulfill a lifelong passion and to complement the technical skills I’ve gained at the Carroll School of Management. Pursuing a double major in history has been one of the most rewarding decisions of my academic journey, as I am constantly challenged to think critically and explore new areas of study. I love that the Boston College History Department offers so many new and unique courses each semester and a path to develop writing, research, and problem-solving skills, which are so valuable.
Maura Hoban Maura Hoban
Maura Hoban
Class of 2025
I am a double major in English and History. Being a History major cultivates an ability to work with primary and secondary sources, read and think critically, and enlarge your worldview. BC’s history department is an amazing collection of people, all intent on helping you find your historical niche and cheering you on during your collegiate career. I enjoy nearly every period of history I’ve had the chance to study, but my Senior Thesis is focusing on Victorian women’s history and fashion, but I also work as a tour guide on the Freedom Trail!
Zicheng Ying Zicheng Ying
Zicheng Ying
Class of 2025
Class Year: 2025
Hometown: Ningbo, China
Majors Other Than History: Physics
Minors / Other Concentration: Asian Studies
Email: yingzi@bc.edu
Throughout my time at BC, I’ve had the opportunity to explore a wide range of historical topics. For example, I never imagined myself taking classes on the Catholic Church, since I was more familiar with Asian history, but I ended up loving it and it gave me a whole new perspective on history of religion. With that being said, I’m really passionate about helping other history majors discover all the resources and opportunities within the History Department. Moreover, as an international student from China, I’ve combined my background in Asian history with three years of Japanese language classes, and I’m now working on thesis research focused on Meiji Japan. I’m also involved in physics research, so if you’re trying to balance multiple interests or are curious about both the humanities and sciences, feel free to reach out!
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Faculty Publications
Landscaping Patagonia
University of North Carolina Press, 2025
Coercive Commerce
University of Chicago Press, 2025
Ever to Excel: A History of Boston College
Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, 2022
German Blood, Slavic Soil: How Nazi Königsberg Became Soviet Kaliningrad
Cornell University Press, 2023
Fragile Victory: The Making and Unmaking of Liberal Order
Yale University Press, 2023
The Samurai and the Cross: The Jesuit Enterprise in Early Modern Japan
Oxford University Press, 2022
Northern Ireland, the BBC and Censorship in Thatcher’s Britain, 1979-1992
Oxford University Press, 2022
Human Rights and Transnational Democracy in South Korea
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022
The Material Fall of Roman Britain, 300-525 CE
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021
Japanese Constitutional Revisionism and Civic Activism Hardcover
Lexington Books, 2021
Touring China: A History of Travel Culture, 1912–1949 (Histories and Cultures of Tourism)
Cornell University Press, 2021
Nazis of Copley Square
Harvard University Press, 2021
Rogue Diplomats: The Proud Tradition of Disobedience in American Foreign Policy
Cambridge University Press, 2020
The Global Refuge: Huguenots in an Age of Empire
New York: Oxford University Press, 2020
How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and The Continuing Fight for the Soul of America
New York: Oxford University Press, 2020
The Woman on the Windowsill: A Tale of Mystery in Several Parts
Yale University Press, 2020
Sovereign Necropolis: The Politics of Death in Semi-Colonial Siam
Cornell University Press, 2020
Madness in the City of Magnificent Intentions
New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Trust Among Strangers: Friendly Societies in Modern Britain
Cambridge University Press, 2018
Political Trials in Theory and History
Cambridge University Press, 2017
Imagining Histories of Colonial Latin America
University of New Mexico Press, 2017
From Revolution to Ethics: May 1968 and Contemporary French Thought, Second Edition
McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017
Beyond the Racial State: Rethinking Nazi Germany
Cambridge University Press, 2017
Everyday Renaissances: The Quest for Cultural Legitimacy in Venice
Harvard University Press, 2016
The River, the Plain, and the State: An Environmental Drama in Northern Song China, 1048-1128
Cambridge University Press, 2016
Bill Clinton: New Gilded Age President
University Press of Kansas, 2016
Understanding and Teaching American Slavery
University of Wisconsin Press, 2016
Violence, Politics and Catholicism in Ireland
Four Courts Press, 2016
The New Bostonians: How Immigrants Have Transformed the Metro Area Since the 1960s
University of Massachusetts Press, 2017
To Save the Children of Korea: The Cold War Origins of International Adoption
Stanford University Press, 2015
The BBC’s Irish Troubles: Television, Conflict and Northern Ireland
Manchester University Press, 2017
African Socialism in Postcolonial Tanzania: Between the Village and the World
Cambridge University Press, 2017
Upcoming Events
Spring Gasson Lecture - Paul Mariani, SJ - How Does China Control Religion?
March 20
5:00 PM
In Person
Higgins Hall, 300 Auditorium
Spring Gasson Lecture: How Does China Control Religion? Paul Mariani, SJ
In the 1980s China permitted limited religious freedom but continued to control religion through important institutions.
How does the experience of the 1980s contrast with what is happening in China today?
The Human & Environmental Costs of Nuclear Weapons
March 21
2:00 PM
In Person
Fulton Hall, Room 250
The Asian Studies Program at Boston College presents:
"The Human & Environmental Costs of Nuclear Weapons: A symposium in honor of the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, winner of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize"
The Daniel C. Morrissey '88 and Chanannait Paisansatan, MD, Distinguished Lecture Series in Asian Studies
Event Details
2:00pm Welcome by Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, MD, Director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College. Introduction by Franziska Seraphim, History, Boston College, with clips from the Nobel Prize ceremony (Oslo, Dec 10, 2024).
2:30pm Panel Discussion with Q&A
3:30pm Coffee and Cookies
3:45pm Screening of Paper Lanterns (2016) with director Barry Frechette
Chairs & Panelists
Chair: Prof. Franziska Seraphim (Boston College)
Panelists: Ran Zwigenberg (Penn State University), Hiromi Mizuno (University of Minnesota), Naoko Wake (Michigan State University), James Nolan, Jr. (Williams College)
Recorded Video Messages: Robert "Bo" Jacobs (Hiroshima City University), Mary Popeo (Peace Culture Village)
Registration
Please fill out the following Google Form to register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScA1vbJEGoXnI0h74P7EKKaE0_M33M5weEp9IPL1O1P11u25Q/viewform?usp=sharing
Co-Sponsors
The Institute for the Liberal Arts, the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good, the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, International Studies, Environmental Studies, the History Department, and the Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Contact
Franziska Seraphim (asian.studies@bc.edu)
Neponset River Lab (Boston College): "Mapping the Neponset"
March 28
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
In Person
Stokes Hall South, S376
Neponset River Lab (Boston College)
History Department Lecture Series
The History Department Lecture Series presents Neponset River Lab (Boston College): "Mapping the Neponset"
John McNeill: “The Industrial Revolution as Global Environmental History”
April 02
7:00 PM
In Person
Gasson Hall, 100
Since 1985, John McNeill has taught history at Georgetown University. He has received two Fulbright awards, a Guggenheim fellowship, a MacArthur grant, and a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He has had visiting appointments at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Universities of Oslo, Bologna, Canterbury, Otago, and was a Guest Professor at Peking University. Since 2011, he has served as a member of the Anthropocene Working Group. He has served as President of the American Society for Environmental History and the American Historical Association.
He has authored or co-authored eight books including The Mountains of the Mediterranean World: An Environmental History and Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-century World, which was the co-winner of book prizes from the World History Association and the Forest History Society and runner-up for the BP Natural World Book Prize. It was listed by The Times among the best science books ever written and translated into nine languages. His book Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620–1914 won the Beveridge Prize from the American Historical Association. His most recent books are The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene, 1945–2015, The Webs of Humankind, and Sea & Land: An Environmental History of the Caribbean. He has edited or co-edited 17 other books. He is co-editor of the Cambridge book series Studies in Environment and History.
Cosponsored by the Boston College History Department and the University Core Curriculum.
All Lowell Humanities Series lectures are free and open to the public. Registration via Eventbrite is required for in-person attendance.
The Lowell Humanities Series is sponsored by the Lowell Institute, Boston College's Institute for the Liberal Arts, and the Provost's Office.
Contact
Avner Goldstein
Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid, Burns Scholar Spring 2025: "Love in the Time of Revolution: Intimacy, Affection and Kinship in Ireland, 1916-1923"
April 09
5:00 PM – 7:30 PM
In Person
Burns Library
Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid is Professor in Irish History and Faculty Director of Education for Arts and Humanities at the University of Sheffield, where she has taught since 2013. She works primarily on Irish history, in particular the Irish Revolution, and more broadly the history of political violence and terrorism since the nineteenth century. Her current research engages the cultural history of the Irish Revolution, focusing particularly on the history of emotions. Her publications include two monographs: Terrorist Histories: Individuals and Political Violence since the 19th Century (Routledge, 2016) and Seán MacBride: A Republican Life, 1904-1946 (Liverpool University Press, 2011).
For further background on Professor Nic Dháibhéid and her Burns Visiting Scholar residency, please visit the Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies web page.
Burns Library will host a complimentary beer, wine, hors d'oeuvres reception beginning at 5:00pm, with Prof. Nic Dháibhéid’s lecture to follow at 6:00pm. All are welcome.
Contact
Caroline Pace (pacecar@bc.edu; 617-552-3282) for more information, including accessibility and parking needs
Roundtable: Where is Religious History Now?
April 11
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
In Person
Stokes Hall South, S376
Paul Mariani, Virginia Reinburg, Chandra Mallampalli, Zachary Matus, Owen Stanwood
History Department Lecture Series
The History Department Lecture Series presents Roundtable: Where is Religious History Now?
Joshua Donovan
April 25
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
In Person
Stokes Hall South, S376
Joshua Donovan (Boston College)
History Department Lecture Series
The History Department Lecture Series presents Joshua Donovan