Historian on TikTok explains why history degrees aren’t as ‘useless’ as people think

A historian on TikTok is sparking a debate after breaking down why history degrees are more beneficial than many people think.

The viral post comes from a creator named Scooter (@scootcork), a teacher and historian who hosts the podcast No Country For History. His video, which now has over 220,000 views, came in response to another TikToker who called history degrees “absolutely useless.”

Scooter, of course, refutes that claim. He begins by noting that history majors were once and still are some of the most popular among college students — and for good reason.

“A history major teaches you to do a lot of stuff that’s really important for a lot of different jobs,” Scooter says.

@scootcork

#stitch with @education.forum dude is just salty that there isn’t an NFT major #history #usa #college #teacher #ushistory

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Scooter goes on to explain that earning a history degree teaches students how to “analyze and critically think.” In his mind, this is one of the biggest misconceptions about the major.

“It’s not just memorizing dates and names and places,” he says. “Literally, I had college professors that were like, ‘I don’t care about any of that.'”

Instead, Scooter says, his professors prioritized skills like analyzing documents, crafting theses and making evidence-based arguments.

Scooter’s point is brief, but it is founded in reality. According to the American Historical Association, history graduates move on to an extremely wide range of careers. While 18% go into education, 15% work in management, 11% join the legal world and 10% wind up in sales. That’s in addition to fields like transportation, community service, healthcare, manufacturing and the arts.

TikTok commenters agreed with the argument as well.

“Memorizing dates to a historian is like doing times tables to a mathematician,” one user wrote. “The field is soooo much richer.”

“I was a history major, and things worked out very well,” another added.

“Any of these majors teach you to write,” another argued. “That’s what matters in so many jobs. Take what you enjoy and learn to write.”

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