American History

American history is the study of the United States as a historical entity, from its colonial origins through the revolution, expansion, civil war, industrialisation, the world wars, the civil rights movement, and the contested politics of the contemporary era. It is a discipline that uses the American experience as a lens on fundamental historical questions about freedom, democracy, race, class, gender, immigration, empire, and the relationship between individual agency and structural forces. America's global reach in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries also makes its history inseparable from the history of the world.

At the University of East Anglia, this four-year full-time degree allows you to develop specialist knowledge of American history alongside the analytical and archival skills that historical study at a high level demands. UEA has a strong tradition in American studies and American history, and the programme benefits from research expertise that spans colonial, antebellum, modern, and contemporary American history. You will engage with primary sources, historiographical debates, and theoretical frameworks that help you understand not just what happened but how historians know it and why interpretations differ.

You will develop the skills of close reading, critical analysis, structured argument, and clear historical writing that are the hallmarks of excellent historical scholarship.

Graduates in American history go on to work in journalism, the civil service, education, heritage, publishing, law, research, and international organisations. The analytical and communicative skills developed by a history degree are valued across any profession where critical thinking and clear argument matter. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in American history, international relations, or area studies, and some pursue doctoral research that contributes new knowledge to the field.