khigh

I had this too, as an intended history major.  Let's just say, I only took Survey of Math (patterns, time card logistics, best delivery routes, etc) and did poorly on the quantitative section.  I didn't have time to retake it, but I hope the adcomm knows that "historians don't math."

Honestly, I found my boyfriend and love when I stopped looking. I’m divorced and an older student (31), so I didn’t fit into the dating scene at my undergrad. I was traveling in Europe between my junior and senior year and got an off hand Facebook message from a one year adjunct from my junior year in my department. His contract was up and we started talking casually that summer. I got back from Europe that July and drove to his state from mine (800 miles each way) a few times to hang out. He moved to Europe and I stayed here to finish my undergrad and we’ve been doing long distance for a year and a half. We’ve met a few times in Europe to travel and he’s coming back here to stay early this coming year. 
Neither of us was looking for anything or anyone, but we found each other and are planning on marriage and babies in the next few years.  In our situation, I told my department as soon as we started dating because I had taken a few of his classes. They had no problems with this because he was gone when we started dating and they had an independent reviewer go over all the work I did for those classes. There was zero favoritism. We talk all the time and make long distance date nights a few times a week and can not wait to spend our lives together. We enjoy a lot of the same things outside academia and he understands the stress of going through the grad school process. 
Moral of the story...There is always hope and you never know when or where you will find someone. Love will happen when it happens. Sometimes you just have to stop looking and love yourself and your person will find you. 

I have a 900 page book sitting here about the causes of the Anglo-Dutch Wars. After 900 pages, you know what you learn about the causes? “We can’t agree”

This is what I was about to say.  I would have little problems answering questions about 17th Century Dutch topics/modern Netherlands/Dutch politics/language and law, but I couldn't discuss much about the Civil War or the 7 Years War from the perspective of an American (I'm American, but a Europeanist).  Let's talk Dutch ships in the Mediterranean during the 80 Years War, but let's not talk about Southeast Asian art (unless it's Dutch East Indies). The only topic outside my field of interest I'm even remotely okay at is 19th Century BASEBALL. That's it. Not tennis, not football, not cricket. Just baseball. 
 
Historians don't have simple discussions.  I would think you would find our discussions to be complex and, at times, heated. There is more theory than you would probably think and I've seen discussions over theory or even qualitative vs quantitative research to get very deep. We are passionate people and without the "simple discussions" of historians, we wouldn't have a lot of the science people study today.  It was the historian that revived the Greek and Roman ways of thinking.  We can also go on and on about, say, how phenomenological research is superior/inferior to ontological or why Braudel's studies are/are not a superior way to view the Mediterranean. Nothing in discussing the past is simple or easy. 

I have a 900 page book sitting here about the causes of the Anglo-Dutch Wars. After 900 pages, you know what you learn about the causes? “We can’t agree”

I have a 900 page book sitting here about the causes of the Anglo-Dutch Wars. After 900 pages, you know what you learn about the causes? “We can’t agree”

Luckily, my apartment has all bills included (including propane). People up here swear by Northface and Columbia jackets or investing in a goose down coat. I have a bag in my car with snow pants and waterproof boots just in case because I work at a job right now that requires being outside when it snows.  I work in luxury car sales right now, so we have to clean the snow off cars each time we get more than 2" of the white stuff. I also recommend a balaclava (face covering) and usanka (Russian military hat). I just ordered a surplus Soviet Siberian coat.  If it works for Siberia, it should work for Minnesota. Plus, they have warehouses full of them and they are relatively expensive; officer coats are more fitted and stylish than enlisted.  Russian Navy coats are well made and you can easily switch out the buttons.

For home, you can get heated blankets and heated rugs if you have wood floors. I also have a buffalo hide blanket and some wool Army surplus blankets (they really are the best, though an ugly drab green). I also cover the windows in bubble wrap and plastic sheeting, which keeps the cold and wind out.  

I want to wish everyone Happy Holidays!  It is a time to rejoice and be in the company of family, friends and loved ones.  Forget about school if you're done;  the semester is over for most people.  Worry about applications due in January after the New Year.  For now, I raise my glass and offer everyone here a deserving toast!

"some type of simple historical topic"
There are no simple historical topics.  All history is complex, multifaceted, and messy.  The difference is that the typical question in the History subforum is specific, so if someone is  asking about a certain period, theme, or perspective in say, Latin American or African history, I'm not going to answer because my specialty is 19th century United States history.  Same reason why I don't answer if the question concerns graduate history programs outside my field of interest. 
 

You sound like my exhusband. He too had an answer for everything and thought his way was the only way. 

I want to apologize for the things I said. I’m sure you mean well, but it’s not easy hearing that what you’ve worked for over the past 13 years is nothing. You don’t know me from Eve, so you wouldn’t know where the actual excitement comes from. 

This is good. No, really, thank you. I’m upset. Of course I’m upset and defensive. I WAS excited for graduate school. Now, I’m not sure. I’ve been working for this for 13 years. I will go. I will do what I need. I will succeed. 
 And then to be overwhelmed and ganged up on is not a good feeling at all. Most people have given good advice and I have been listening to everyone, but some have also been very discouraging. 

You sound like my exhusband. He too had an answer for everything and thought his way was the only way. 

I don’t know how to say this more nicely, but if your snark is what is produced at ivies, no wonder the profession isn’t attracting more people. Nose bleeds must be a problem high up there in your ivory tower. 
And with that, I will not let you get me down and I will not take the attitude. I will be ignoring you. If it was not for everyone else, I would be leaving. You offer no support nor do you seem to ever look at anything from the perpestive of the person you are replying to. I’m going to chock that up to having never lived outside academia. 

You sound like my exhusband. He too had an answer for everything and thought his way was the only way. 

I don’t know how to say this more nicely, but if your snark is what is produced at ivies, no wonder the profession isn’t attracting more people. Nose bleeds must be a problem high up there in your ivory tower. 
And with that, I will not let you get me down and I will not take the attitude. I will be ignoring you. If it was not for everyone else, I would be leaving. You offer no support nor do you seem to ever look at anything from the perpestive of the person you are replying to. I’m going to chock that up to having never lived outside academia. 

Please excuse the formatting.  I was playing "deconstruct the syllabus and bib." Because some of the books seem "off" based on the class title, I included a brief description of the paper they go with.  I have some other bibs, but I don't feel like digging through Dropbox right now. All secondary sources
Baseball History- Senior Capstone on the American West. How the American West shaped the rules of baseball after the Civil War through 1908
Block, David. Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game. Lincoln:  University of Nebraska Press, 2005.  Dreifort, John E. Baseball History from Outside the Lines. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.  Goldstein, Warren. Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball. London: Cornell  University Press, 1989.  Sullivan, Dean A. Early Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.  Thorn, John. Baseball in the Garden of Eden: A Secret History of the Game. New York City: Simon and Schuster, 2011.  Tygiel, Jules. Past Time: Baseball as History. New York City: Oxford University Press,  2000.  German History- History of Germany from Unification to the fall of the Berlin Wall.  These are all from the syllabus.  The books were in German. Paper was about the humanity of Joseph Goebbels.
Welch, Third Reich- politics and propaganda Martin Kitchen, A History of Modern Germany: 1800 to the Present, Second Edition, (ISBN: 978-0-470-65581-8) Heinrich Böll, Billiards at Half-Past Noon (ISBN: 978-1935554189) Gerhart Hauptmann, Plays (ISBN: 978-0826407276) Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (ISBN: 978-0449213940) Peter Schneider, The Wall Jumper: A Berlin Story (ISBN: 978-0226739410) Dutch Republic- Independent study in the historiography of the Dutch Republic.  Paper was about using the Union of Utrecht and the Pacification of Ghent as political dialogue.
Arnade, Peter. Beggars, Iconoclasts, and Civic Patriots: The Political Culture of the Dutch Revolt. Cornell U Press; October 2008 Rowen, Herbert. The Princes of Orange: The Stadholders in the Dutch Republic. Cambridge U Press; September 1990 Koenigsberger, HG. Monarchies, States Generals and Parliaments: The Netherlands in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries Cambridge U Press; February 2002 Stensland, Monica. Habsburg Communication in the Dutch Revolt. Amsterdam U Press; June 2012 Deen, Femke. Publiek debat en propaganda in Amsterdam tijdens de Nederlandse Opstand. Amsterdam U Press; November 2014 Gelderen, Martin.  The Political Thought of the Dutch Republic 1555-1590. Cambridge U Press; October 2002 Geevers, Liesbeth. Gevallen vazallen: De integratie van Oranje, Egmonth en Horn in de Spaans-Habsburgse monarchie (1559-1567). Amsterdam U Press; September 2008 Soen, Violet.  Vredehandel: Adellijke en Habsburgse verzoeningspogingen de Nederlandse Opstand (1564-1581). Amsterdam U Press; December 2012 Vermeesch, Griet. Oorlog, steden en staatsvorming: De grenssteden Gorinchem en Doensburg tijdens de geboorte-eeuw van de Republiek (1570-1680). Amsterdam U Press; September 2006 Mediterranean History- From the syllabus. Obvious class description.  Paper was an analysis of a travel journal of the Dutch Navy
David, Robert C. Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003. Jacksonian Era- Easy enough to figure out what the class was about.  Paper was about the effects of the 1848 German Revolution on the transition from the Jacksonian Era/Individualism to the Civil War/Collectivism
Kohl, Lawrence Frederick. The Politics of Individualism: Parties and the American Character In the Jacksonian Era New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Levine, Bruce. The Spirit of 1848: German Immigrants, Labor Conflict, and the Coming of the Civil War. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992. Moggach, Douglas and Paul Leduc Browne. The Social Question and the Democratic Revolution: Marx and the Legacy of 1848. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2000. Randers-Pehrson, Justine Davis. Adolf Douai, 1819-1888: The Turbulent Life of a German Forty-Eighter in the Homeland and in the United States. New York: Peter Lang            Publishing, 2000. Stadelman, Rudolph. Social and Political History of the German 1848 Revolution. Translated by James G. Chastain. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1970. Siemann, Wolfman. The German Revolution of 1848-49. Translated by Christiane Banerji. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985. Tóth, Heléna. An Exiled Generation: German and Hungarian Refugees of Revolution, 1848-1871. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. War and Depression- US History from 1918- 1945.  Paper was about the First Red Scare (Summer 1920) and how the anarchist movement should be included in the literature
Feldman, Jay. Manufacturing Hysteria: A History of Scapegoating, Surveillance, and Secrecy in Modern America.New York: Anchor Books, 2011. Kramer, Reinhold and Tom Mitchell. When the State Trembled: How A.J. Andrews and the Citizens Committee Broke the Winnepeg General Strike. Toronto: University of Toronto            Press, 2010. Nielsen, Kim E. Un-American Womanhood: Antiradicalism, Antifeminism, and the First Red Scare. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2001. Powers, Richard Gid. Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. Schmidt, Regin. Red Scare: FBI and the Origins of Anticommunism in the United States, 1919-1943. Gylling, Denmark: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2000.

If we expressed an interest in grad school while in undergrad, it was highly suggested we minor in foreign languages.  Once you learn your first language in a language group, the rest are easier.  I did have 4 years of German before undergrad, though, so I think that helped.  I took German, French, and Dutch at the collegiate level for 3 years, which made Afrikaans and Frisian easy (I know, they're dialects, but don't tell them that), and Italian is coming pretty easily with the French background.
I love your suggestion of doing language courses at a community college.  That's something I would have never thought to suggest.  It's probably the best and least expensive track for languages. I wish they would push history majors in undergrad more towards languages as a minor than they currently do. 

Thank you!

Maybe I need to read more anglo literature.  Looking at my bookshelf, I don't own anything by an American author. I have Hugo and Chaucer and Tolstoy, Mann and Hesse and Kafka, and writers from around the world, but no Americans.  Most of my academic books were published by Leiden/UCL, before the 20th century, or are philosophy.  The only truly "American" book I have is Baseball and Philosophy (well, and "How to talk Minnesotan," but I wouldn't hold that up as a good piece of literature). 
The academic I worked under does write in English, but the historiography of the Dutch Republic is not a field that is typically written in English and has fallen out of favor with non-Dutch speaking audiences. The current Dutch government has some influence in that because they believe that Dutch language and culture are being absorbed by the English and lost.  They really push for Dutch history to be done in a strictly Dutch context and either written in Dutch or translated into Dutch and published first under the Dutch title. 
I really do thank y'all for the criticism and help.  I may have to rethink my approach to academia and writing or see if there is a healthy balance between how I write and what academia requires in the current era.

Those were required reading for sophomore seminar. ?

I know he has.  That was my advisor's advisor.  I've met with Dr. Reyerson to talk about looking at the Dutch role in the Mediterranean and Dr Shank because he has some connections with Utrecht. Tracy would have been amazing, but there are rumors that he is still around Minneapolis, so it's in the process to maybe have coffee with him sometime.  His Founding of the Dutch Republic made me obsessed with the Republic.