grapefruit

Hello there, a few weeks ago I posted another thread about the difficulties of finding a specialization into the ocean of generic history and a wide range of interests. What a struggle it was! Yet, at last I can say that I finally reached a good compromise between my own interests and what's truly feasible given my language skills and study career so far. I've always been fascinated by the airline industry since I started my Uni career and during the final months of my studies I took a couple of classes that I loved: economical history and history of industry. I am currently writing a paper focusing on one of the main airports of my home country (Italy), and the combination of factors causing its stunned growth; politics, lobbies, nimby groups, planning mistakes and so on. If you're familiar with Montreal Mirabel Airport's happenings you can easily think of the practical applications of writing about this subject. As you can see the potential is immense and I see myself writing about this for months. It's all I've been reading about as a hobby within the last years after all. Now I have a couple of questions for you since I'm a bit confused/worried about the feasibility of this as a long-term project, considering my future goal of applying to graduate school off-seas. I can't really draw the line between the faculties of History and Economics when talking of industrial history, nor I can find professors specialized into the field when searching internet database and so on. Is it such a small niche or is it actually a part of Economics? I'm supposed to contact a Professor that I expect to be familiar with this area at some point, where exactly should I look? Another big factor is that US and UK universities are simply way off my budget, and for personal reasons I'd rather apply to any place in Canada or a similar culture. Any good advice is very welcome.

Let me add that this was basically my own experience, I made the huge mistake of throwing myself into Ancient History without knowing a word of either Greek or Latin. When I started to realize how difficult it was soul crashing and ultimately ended up almost dropping out of university before realizing that ancient history could have been just an interest inside a larger plan. Don't forget that skills such as foreign languages and generic knowledge, mandatory for historians, can take years to develop. I was lucky enough to have been born in Europe where everybody is forced to study 2-3 foreign languages at school, and at some point it only made sense to put my pride aside and switch to modern/contemporary history where, all of sudden, I was one of the best students of my class simply because the passion was still there even after all these years. There was another user there that mentioned writing down a list of your favorite historical periods in order to decide the subject of your thesis, I'd suggest doing the same even before enrolling: make a list of those historical periods that motivate you, and see what you can do right now. My favorite historical periods? The Persian wars, Octavian's rise to power, Russian Enlightenment, the Soviet world, industrial history, the World Wars. Am I going to take (again) Greek, Latin or Russian classes in order to be a professional expert about one of these? Hell no, not again, I'll just keep them as a hobby while I focus on industrial history and the wars, since it's something I still enjoy and I have all the required knowledge to begin with. You can see where this discussion is going, hope you can find what you're looking for.

Hard work is the only thing you need. Not tomorrow, not later tonight, now. If you want a career in this you have to understand that getting the tools for your future is the best way to raise your self-esteem, your grades will simply be a reflection of the hard work. The same thing happened to a lot of people that were basically forced by "the world" into degrees- and ultimately, careers- that they hated and now their lives are miserable because of that. Consider yourself lucky for escaping a life of misery in a job that you hate/don't care about and use what you have learned to improve yourself and your chances for the future. As for the tips... you already know for sure that you're in love with history, so try to figure out what your favorite periods are and start investing your spare time into that. Subscribe to history publications, learn a foreign language, travel to the places that inspire you. Make history a part of your life.

Thank you so much, you have no idea how encouraging your post was. I hope to find the right inspiration within the next months.

Thanks for your answer, made me feel a bit more relaxed. About the warning, I guess I could focus on something specific still connected to India in WW2 for the BA thesis and use it as an opportunity to get better acquainted with this historical period in order to find a specific area of interest for later? Something like... "Indian soldiers fighting on the European front: some with the Axis, some with the Allies" for the BA, then a generic "something that happened in Italy during WW2 that might be somehow connected or not with my previous work about Indians" for the MA statement of purpose? Maybe connected to Italy, since I'm a mother tongue?

Hello there, thanks for reading this. I recently restarted my university career after a couple of terrible years when I basically stopped attending without dropping out (I had some depression issues that I'm not sure how to explain in my application) and everything has been going very good since then. I'm taking my BA in History from a good Italian university with a 3.8 GPA, since I missed the deadline for graduation this year I will have one year to use in order to improve my BA paper, CV and application chances for the future. The reason for writing in this thread is that I basically don't have a favorite historical period, and I'm afraid that this could hurt my chances of being accepted anywhere. The transcript of my past exams shows this too, I attended classes in anything between history of ancient economy, numismatics, Jewish history, modern Islamic history. There are just too many things that I consider interesting that I don't know where to begin, so maybe it would be a good idea to stick to something as long as I am competent and there are no language barriers. Anything concerning modern/contemporary history sound like a good bet, since I'm fluent in Italian, English, Spanish and French. In order to show dedication for my future career I thought it would be a good idea to use an upcoming holiday in India as a chance to gather information and improve my BA final paper, which is focusing on India during World War II. I chose this subject because I thought it was a great idea to combine my two biggest passions, history and traveling. Generally speaking, sticking to modern/contemporary India and/or colonial matters sounds good, interesting and feasible, so maybe focusing on this subject in my future MA would be a good idea? For personal and future career reasons I want to apply to a MA in History anywhere in Canada. As mentioned in another user's thread in this subgroup, me too I'm mostly looking for a university that would accept me. I'm 28 and I feel like I've thrown away too much time deciding what to do as an adult, it's time to stick to something as long as I'm doing something constructive that makes me feel happy, focused on my future and on what I'm good at in life- history. Canada and India have quite a lot of connections, so why not? Your honest advice on this matter and any kind of hint and suggestion, even brutal, is very appreciated. I'm trying to find my way and every opinion on the matter is important.