what degree history vs political science

[Ghost1986]

h

[Taprobane]

I'm just coming to the end of my history degree (albeit in Britain) and it's not quite as you'd expect from the outside. It involves a lot of similar stuff to political science, you learn about historical schools of thought and other historians thoughts more than perhaps coming up with your own theories. Over here we also do quite a bit on general theories of history, theories of why things happened, not just what happened. My main area of study at the moment is the British Empire and there are a lot of theories as to why the empire grew as it did and we learn about and evaluate though as opposed to just finding out what happened though the rise and fall of the empire.

Hope that helped, probably not particularly considering I'm studying in a different country to you!

[nickgray]

I'd take Physics.

[Decaf]

I don't really know much about either, but between the two I would think your average INTP would enjoy history over political science.

[EditorOne]

Depends on the specifics of each course of study, I can see already that history in England is a different animal than history taught at the local university here in Pennsylvania. However, political science can be very analytical, as can history, and analytical is Good in my book. I'm thinking of finishing up my political science undergraduate degree and then going for a masters in history, just for sake of the futility of doing all that now for any reason except "I feel like it and I think I now have the patience, maturity and insight to deal with pedantic squat and bullroar."

Neither field of study is necessarily a path to wealth or a fulfilling career, but either is better than stepping on a nail. :)

[Taprobane]

In Wales actually :p

But yes, at degree level history tends to be more analytical than at school as knowledge of the facts is assumed.

Speaking of history degrees, I should be doing a document analysis for my dissertation at the moment but I decided the forum would be far more productive...