Military history...job wise

[the_alias]

Wonder if anyone has any links ideas/suggestions for me..I am very interested in military history and hope to mayb consider it as a job. What courses do u think i should take in uni? is there a degree course such as English Military history? and would i then have to work for teh MOD as a historian ?
Cheers

[Sticky Blue]

Main places you could work are The Imperial War Museum, Regimental Museums, or Historical Records Office. These are nearly always Civil Servant Positions and not serving. Some of the smaller regimental positions would be for serving but probably at SNCO/ WO level...

[Tab]

The jobs in this line of work or few and far between and are not well paid.
My eldest son tried to go down this path and even with a very good degree
found it was dead end. His subject is now his hobby as he had to take a well paid job to look after his family, he spends quite a bit of time doing research and writting articiles on many aspects of history.

[AdamR]

I'm afraid Tab is right, unless you get yourself on the telly or lecturing in a decent university (one overseas as British lecturers get paid pittance) there isn't much in the way of work that pays well. If you're really lucky you could find yourself lecturing at Sandhurst, Cranwell or Dartmouth. Although you shouldn't let lack of work stop you, if you really want to do it go for it.
Go to http://www.ucas.com and search for a course there.

[barryc]

Tab is right about the career prospects and attendant pay scales. The husband of one of my team at work has just retired from the Imperial War Museum where he was a curator for many years. He has a Masters degree in European Military History and his Batchelors in some related topic, all that study and the Civil Service scale is HEO. Put in perspective a dumb ex-booty who left school at 15 without any O levels, some subsequent schooling and qualifications, who didn't join the Civil Service until 1986, is sitting two grades higher. The Curator will get the better pension that is true, because of 40 years of service whereas the dumb Bootie (me) loses out by not getting any pension rights from his time in the Corps, so retire next year with 19 years of pension. By Crimble 2005 I might well be selling The Big Issue!

B

[df2inaus]

T_A,

http://www.atra.mod.uk/rmas/academic/ws.htm

Why not contact some of the people above directly? They have the jobs you want and I was fortunate to be a student of a couple for a little while. I'm certain they'll help you.

They've probably all had a pretty long haul, BA, MA, Ph.d, some with miltary service as well plus being in the right place at the right time!

Take Dr. Nusbacher for example, service in the Canadian Army, now TA in addition to his role at RMAS. He is a favourite of cadets and I've seen him on the History Channel a few times, Dr. Duncan Anderson as well.

http://www.atra.mod.uk/rmas/academic/nusbacher.htm

Aryeh Nusbacher was born in New York City in 1966. He lived most of his life on the shores of Lake Ontario, going to school in Rochester; and to university in Toronto and Kingston.

He took an honours BA in history and economics at the University of Toronto in 1988, writing his thesis on "The First Roll of Arms: Matthew Paris's Heraldic Illustrations in the Liber Additamentorum" under Professor Thayron Sandquist.

Dr Nusbacher worked at the University of Toronto for several years, beginning in the Centre of Criminology, and moving to Hart House, the student union, where he was Programme Advisor. After leaving Hart House he was administrator of the President's Commission on the Health Sciences under Professor John Leyerle, and IT consultant to the Reinventing Administration project.

Returning to academia in 1994, Dr Nusbacher completed a two-year MA in War Studies at the Royal Military College / Collège militaire royal at Kingston. His thesis, under Professor Mike Hennessy, was "Sweet Irony: The German Roots of Israeli Armoured Doctrine with Special Reference to Operations on the Golan Heights, 1973".

He continued his education at the University of Oxford, completing a doctorate in history in 2001. His thesis, supervised by Dr Clive Holmes and Dr David Parrott, was "Triple Thread: Supply of Victuals to the Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax 1645-6".

Dr Nusbacher was appointed Senior Lecturer in War Studies at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1999.

[minimac]

I was also thinking about it and realised

A) Money is crap
B) Spend hours and hours of bookwork. I'm alright for a bit but I avent got the stamina to spend all day staring at a page

C) If I joined up then I could write my own history.

Cue neck winding.

T

[the_alias]

thx for all the info just seems appealing to me at my youngish age (looking at lots of options i can see!) watching ppl like *cant think of the name of the guy* on bbc programmes gr8 prsenting anyway! im off to see arnhem this weekend and vist the Aribourne Museum there cant wait

[Liver]

- try looking for war studies and history combined courses.

[Rubber Duck]

Alias, I am doing a degree in War Studies at Kings College London. Perhaps a course like this would be suited to you? It consists of history but is quite multi disciplinary so you also learn about international relations, politics, economics, etc.
You also look at a wide range of wars, right from ancient times up to whats happening in Iraq now. Lots of our lecturers are on TV such as Andrew Lambert and Philip Sabin. We also had a few lectures by Brigadier Julain Thompson, the RM in charge of the Falklands task force.
If you want to get a military history oriented job then I would have thought this would be a good course to do.
You could also join the OTC to get a soldiers perspective on things.