Historians seek to understand societies by studying change and continuity over time. Everything has a history. From a national constitution to modern consumer culture, from the rise of empires to environmental crises, from the human species to your family, studying history teaches you about the forces that have made the world in which you live. It helps you to understand the present by understanding its past.
The ANU is a national leader in History and offers a wide range of courses covering Australia, Europe, the Americas, and Asia, from ancient times to the recent past. Courses trace themes such as empire, war, terrorism, politics, economics, culture, ideas, identity, crime, health and the environment. Some focus on particular nations or regions, while others focus on global and transnational processes. Some courses focus on concepts and philosophies that underlie historical analysis or techniques of historical research. All our courses develop student skills in historical theory and method.
History is a core discipline in the humanities and social sciences. It gives students knowledge and skills that are valued in any professional context. Our students successfully pursue careers in academia, museums, government, diplomacy, NGOs, journalism, management, teaching and many other fields.
If you do not have room in your degree to do a Major, a Minor in History still provides an excellent complement to many other subjects such as law, politics, international relations, archaeology, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, literature and art history. It can also teach valuable skills for students in the sciences
Learning Outcomes
- demonstrate understanding of at least one period or culture of the past;
- examine historical issues by undertaking research according to the methodological and ethical conventions of the discipline;
- analyse historical evidence, scholarship and changing representations of the past; and
- construct an evidence-based argument or narrative in audio, digital, oral, visual or written form.
Relevant Degrees
Requirements
The History Minor requires the completion of 24 units, which must include:
A maximum of 12 units at 1000 level.
A minimum of 18 units must come from completion of courses from the following list:
HIST1209 - Terror to Terrorism: A History (6 units)
HIST1214 - Empires in Global History (6 units)
HIST2022 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History (6 units)
HIST2070 - Emperors, Pilgrims and Crusaders: The World of Byzantium (6 units)
HIST2110 - Approaches to History (6 units)
HIST2128 - Colonies and Post-colony: Nineteenth-Century Australia and its Legacies (6 units)
HIST2136 - World at War, 1939-1945 (6 units)
HIST2141 - The Cold War: 1945-1989 (6 units)
HIST2205 - Europe and the Atlantic World, c.1492-1776 (6 units)
HIST2206 - The Great War’s Battlefields: A Study Tour of Gallipoli, the Western Front and Paris (12 units)
HIST2211 - Global Environmental History Since 1945 (6 units)
HIST2214 - The Great War: The Conflict that Changed the World (6 units)
HIST2219 - Tudor-Stuart England, c.1485-1714: Politics, Society and Culture (6 units)
HIST2221 - The Birth of Modernity: Britain 1688-1848 (6 units)
HIST2226 - Nazi Germany (6 units)
HIST2227 - Australian Political History (6 units)
HIST2231 - Exploration: From Captain Cook to the Astronauts (6 units)
HIST2232 - Crime and Justice: Historical Dilemmas (6 units)
HIST2240 - Democracy and Dissent: Europe Since 1945 (6 units)
HIST2242 - The Soviet Union: From the Russian Revolution to the Collapse of Communism (6 units)
HIST3007 - Making History (6 units)
HIST3012 - Special Topics in History (6 units)
HIST3110 - Approaches to History (6 units)
HIST3112 - Plagues, Pandemics and Public Health in History (6 units)
HIST3133 - Race and Racism in Western Culture, c.1450-1950 (6 units)
HIST3142 - Indigenous History, Memory, and Politics (6 units)
HIST3228 - The Enlightenment: Europe and the World 1660-1800 (6 units)
A maximum of 6 units from the completion of the following list:
ARCH2004 - Australian Archaeology (6 units)
ARCH2055 - Archaeological Fieldschools and Fieldwork Practice (6 units)
ARCH2058 - European Prehistory from Cultivation to the Celts (6 units)
ASIA2009 - The Making of Modern Japan: From Samurai to Economic Superpower and Beyond (6 units)
ASIA2016 - The Mongol Empire in World History (6 units)
ASIA2118 - Pollution in Past Societies: The Science and History that Shaped the Modern World (6 units)
ASIA2037 - History of Modern China (6 units)
ASIA2040 - The Making of Modern Korea (6 units)
ASIA2044 - Chinese History: The Imperial Period (221 BC - 1800) (6 units)
ASIA2045 - Lies, Conspiracy and Propaganda (6 units)
ASIA2072 - Taiwan: History and Culture (6 units)
ASIA2270 - India Past and Present: The impact of pre-colonial history on India today (6 units)
ASIA2307 - History of Empire in Asia (6 units)
ASIA3011 - Samurai Society and Social Control in Japan (6 units)
ASIA3030 - History of the State System in Southeast Asia (6 units)
ASIA3272 - Truth and Falsity in Indian History and Politics (6 units)
CLAS2014 - Democrats, Tyrants, and Emperors: The Art of Government in the Ancient Mediterranean (6 units)
CLAS2015 - Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World: An Age of Transformation and Discovery (6 units)
CLAS3001 - Rome: The Eternal City from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages (6 units)
CLAS3003 - Faith and Belief in Ancient Greece and Rome (6 units)
ENGL2022 - Jane Austen: History and Fiction (6 units)
MEAS2000 - Iranian History and Culture (6 units)
MEAS2003 - Modern Turkey: History, Society and Culture (6 units)
MEAS2006 - Gallipoli: A Transnational History (6 units)
PASI2002 - Australia in Oceania in the 19th and 20th Centuries (6 units)
POLS2100 - Genocide in the Modern World (6 units)
SCRN2003 - Film and History: Hollywood and Beyond (6 units)
WARS2004 - War in the Islands: The Second World War in the Pacific (6 units)
Back to the top