Show Us Your Majors
With an assist with several history department websites and Dr. History, I looked up the names of people commonly cited by us as having been history majors.
U.S. Presidents: Theodore Roosevelt (Harvard University), Woodrow Wilson (Princeton University), Franklin D. Roosevelt (Harvard University), Richard Nixon (Whittier College), George W. Bush (Yale University)
N.B. Theodore Roosevelt (in 1912) and Woodrow Wilson (in 1924) also served as president of the American Historical Association.Other Politicians: Senator Bill Bradley (Princeton University), Senator Max Cleland (M.A., Emory University), Representative Newt Gingrich (Emory University), Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (Harvard University), Senator George McGovern (Dakota Wesleyan University) Senator George Mitchell (Bowdoin College), Justice Antonin Scalia (Georgetown University), Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson (Princeton University)
N.B. (1) Before serving in the United States Senate, George McGovern also earned a Ph. D. in history from Northwestern University and taught history and political science at Dakota Wesleyan University. (2) Before becoming Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich also earned a Ph.D. in Modern European History from Tulane University and taught history at Western Georgia College.Athletes: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (UCLA), Ken Dryden (Cornell University), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (UCLA), Grant Hill (Duke University)
Educators: W.E.B. DuBois (Fisk University), Vartan Gregorian (Stanford University), Henry Kissinger (Harvard University), Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (Harvard University)
N.B. DuBois was also the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard (in History).The Media: Chris Berman (Brown University), Wolf Blitzer (SUNY-Buffalo), Seymour Hersh (University of Chicago), Charles Kuralt (University of North Carolina)
The Business World: Carly Fiorina (Stanford University), Lee Iacocca* (Lehigh University), Martha Stewart (Barnard College)
N.B.Andrew D. Todd points out in comments that Lee Iacocca was not a history major at Lehigh.Entertainers: Ellen Barkin (Hunter College), Jimmy Buffett (Auburn University), Janeane Garofalo (Providence College), Katharine Hepburn (Bryn Mawr College), Lauryn Hill (Columbia University), Conan O'Brien (Harvard University), Edward Norton (Yale University), Michael Palin (Oxford University)
N.B. Michael Palin is not the only member of Monty Python with an interest in history. Terry Jones has written on the history of chivalry and has hosted a History Channel series on the Middle Ages.
I'm not sure what to make of this list. Are these supposed to be role models of success for history majors? Is there reason to believe that the common thread of their having been history majors made a significant difference in their lives? Could we make a list of history majors who have been monumental failures or monumentally corrupt? Or, weren't some of those already listed known to have been such? Show me your majors. What difference does it make?