History matters
"History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future." - Robert Penn Warren
Click the arrow for more informationFamous People With History Degrees - The World of Business
Chris Hughes (co-founder of Facebook)
Howard Stringer (chairman and CEO of the Sony Corporation)
Carly Fiorina (president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard; History and Philosophy)
Chelsea Clinton
Martha Stewart
Lee Iacocca (American automobile executive best known for spearheading the development
of the Ford Mustang; CEO of Chrysler)
Robert Johnson (CEO of BET TV)
Charles Sennott (co-founder and vice president of Global News)
Howard Stringer (chairman and CEO of the Sony Corporation)
Louis Theroux - inquisitive documentary maker
Susan Wojcicki (CEO of YouTube; History and Literature)
Celebrities with History Degrees - Entertainment Industry
Steve Carell – comedy icon / actor, holds a history degree from Denison University
Lawrence Gene "Larry" David – comedian, writer, actor, television producer
Tony Danza – actor (“Who’s the Boss?”)
Janeane Garofalo – actress, stand-up comedian, liberal activist
John Arthur Lithgow – actor (“3rd Rock from the Sun” and other comedies)
Jonathan Ross – entertainment talk-show host (Looks like those skills of analysis
come in handy for a successful career in media…)
Conan O’Brien – entertainment talk-show host
Edward Norton – actor (most notable for roles in “Fight Club” and “American History
X” holds not only a history degree but a decent command of languages)
Dean Cain – actor (“Lois & Clark: Superman”)
Sacha Baron Cohen – actor (notable for his morally flawed character portrayal in “Borat”;
though, he proves in reality, genuinely intelligent as a history graduate from Cambridge
- a top-ranking UK school)
Michael Palin (Monty Python founder, in fact his co-founder Terry Jones, has published
extensively on medieval history and hosted a History Channel series on the Middle
Ages)
Jimmy Buffett – musician, actor, author, businessman
Julia Child - chef and television personity
Katharine Hepburn - actress
Notable Political Figures with History Degrees
United States Presidents with History Degrees:
George W. Bush
Theodore Roosevelt (also president of the American Historical Association, 1912)
Woodrow Wilson (also president of the American Historical Association, 1924)
Franklin D. Roosevelt
John F. Kennedy
Richard Nixon
Dwight Eisenhower
Other Notable Politicians/Public Figures Who Studied History:
Newt Gingrich
George McGovern
George Mitchell
Tim Johnson
Joe Biden
Cory Booker
Robert Gates
Samantha Power
Notable Authors with History Degrees
Salman Rushdie – prolific novelist and essayist
H.G. Wells - War of The Worlds
Ayn Rand - Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter
David Hume - historian, philospher, author
Niccolo Machiavelli - historian, politician, philosopher, author, humanist, diplomat
Flo Steinberg - pioneer publisher of underground comic books
Kevin Fagan - cartoonist and creator of the syndicated strip “Drabble”
Malcolm Gladwell
Carl Sandburg
Annie Proulx
Athletes with History Degrees
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Bill Bradley
Andrew DeClercq
Ken Dryden
Grant Hill