History liberates us from the confines of time and place. We can take down the Berlin Wall with David Hasselhoff. We can get arrested with Alice Paul. We can help drive the Golden Spike at Promontory Point. We can cheer (or not) with the sans-culottes as citizen Louis Capet (though as king Louis XVI might have been a bit attached to) lost his head.

 History also empowers us by demonstrating the strength of the collective will, cooperation, technology, and the passionate, undaunted voice (Alice Paul, not David Hasselhoff).

 Simpson College history majors will graduate with a critical understanding of the essential features of the western tradition, a discriminating knowledge of cultures different from their own, and the communication and thinking skills necessary for both a career and full participation as citizens.

History majors achieve this mission by reading primary sources in our “Great Books” approach to Western Civilization, role playing in Reacting to the Past games, traveling to foreign countries, building relationships with professors and peers, working on their own independent research projects, and working as historians through internships throughout the state.