The History major is the essential foundation of knowledge. It provides the context for a liberal education, the tools to understand ourselves and our contemporary world, and the skills for an educated person to live a more fulfilled and gratifying life in a wide range of careers. The major program not only prepares students for teaching and for graduate study in history but many students have found history an appropriate preparatory foundation for careers in law, library science, international work, the foreign service, the ministry, business, government and archival and museum work. History majors develop the following skills: better understand our society and the times in which we live, better understand ourselves and to place our own society in historical perspective, balance present-mindedness with historical memory, to acquire skills such as conducting research, communicating effectively through writing or oral communication, critical thinking, evaluating evidence, and problem-solving, to understand the roles which individuals and groups have played in shaping their worlds, for the enjoyment of examining societies very different or very similar to our own.