“[History is] not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.”
- Lord Acton

HISTORIANS study the past, yet they never become disconnected from the present. What we are and will be is rooted in what we were. In uncovering the past, historians reveal to us the political, cultural, and economic elements that have shaped our world. This is how we write and teach history at Lewis & Clark. Our curriculum is global in scope, inviting students to compare the traditions of various cultures and countries. We offer sufficient depth in the history of the Americas, Europe, and Asia to allow students to develop sophisticated knowledge of these regions in the modern and premodern eras. Moreover, our emphasis on research and writing equips our students with skills appropriate to a wide range of pursuits.

At Lewis & Clark, the faculty believes that a critical understanding of how history is crafted is as important as learning the historical details. The development of research and writing skills is one of the main objectives of the department’s program. All majors take a unique methods course called Historical Materials, which focuses on how to find and use historical documents—books, manuscripts, periodicals, newspapers, maps, photographs—as research tools. In a second required course called Reading Colloquium, students read the best literature in a field selected by the instructor and come to grips with the variety of ways history is written and interpreted. In the history research seminar, majors conduct intensive research on a particular topic and present their findings to their classmates in the form of a thesis. This series of courses, we believe, prepares students to use research and writing skills in whatever career path they choose and equips them to be discerning students of history throughout their lives.

See the Lewis & Clark Catalog and Footnotes, our newsletter, to learn more about the department and the history major.