I'm in American Studies with a focus on 20th Century US History. Grad school is the best time of your life if you like reading, writing, and working hard. Yeah, when I was taking classes and had to write 80 pages a semester or read 3 books in one week, it was draining and sometimes boring, but when given the alternative (a real job- eww), I really came to appreciate it. Now that I'm ABD (all but dissertation), it's a little more stressful, because I set my own schedule and have to find money to do research, travel, and live. But those first 3 years just taking classes and being a TA/research assistant were honestly fun. If you love your material, you'll love grad school in history.

That being said, I know recent PhDs who actively discourage people from going into grad school for history. There are very few jobs out there for history academics. BUT, there are some highly competitive jobs. The same guy who told me not to go to grad school got a tenure track job at a liberal arts college. And there's also public history jobs, community college, and- god forbid- high school teaching (jk, I'd love to teach high school).

So if you're thinking a PhD, I say go for it. It'll give you time to hone your research skills and have fun learning. I would say a 2 years Master's is probably not the best and doesn't really do too much for you. Go PhD. Doctors have more fun ;) Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Also, /r/GradSchool might help you out too (though they're mostly sciences and super stressed out there).

PhDs in modern US history are a dime a dozen. This means you with either have to be exceptionally talented, or exceptionally lucky, to stand out. For every job that appears there are hundreds of applicants. It is the most crowded field in history at American universities at the moment. So think long and hard before you sign up to spend the good part of a decade getting a degree in the least valued, most difficult, most-impacted, least-sexy subfield of historical practice. Personally I would warn against it for that reason alone — it is just a completely flooded market.

Take a look at the graphs in this article and think about them seriously. In 2012 there were some 400 new US history PhDs granted on the market; there were about 150 total jobs in the field that same year (and, as with all fields of employment, most of the available jobs are not ideal ones).

Current history grad student here. I think the most important thing to be aware of is that the academic job market is terrible. You definitely shouldn't do this just because you want to be a tenured professor someday.

That said, I have two main pieces of advice. Firstly, don't go into debt for a graduate degree in the humanities right now, because there's no guarantee of income at the end to pay it off. Grad school can be awesome, but at least in my view it's not worth compromising my future financial situation in the extremely likely case that things don't work out on the job market. If you aren't independently wealthy and don't have funding, don't do it. Secondly, remember to enjoy the process. Spending your time learning new things, doing research you're passionate about, and talking about cool ideas with really smart people is awesome. I see a lot of people lose sight of that because of the stress, which is really unfortunate. Everyone goes through rough patches, of course, but if you find you aren't personally fulfilled in some way by the work you're doing then you should seriously consider leaving. Don't let a sunk cost fallacy make you miserable for years.

Most importantly, remember that you are a whole person with value beyond your academic work. It's so unhealthy to let grad school become your whole identity, and it makes the whole process much more stressful.

There's so much more I could say, and I'm happy to elaborate on any of this or answer specific questions about the application or decision process, but I think this is the most important stuff I can say to you as you decide whether grad school might be right for you. Good luck with your future endeavors either way!

As someone who is currently applying to an MLS program: the program in question offers an academic librarian path, and I'm seriously considering it. Would academic librarianship constitute a viable alt-ac career? Would it be a good idea for me to pick up an additional subject-specific Masters' (Ancient Mediterranean, in my case) to enhance my chances of employment?

To echo what others say, the history job market overall is bad and the modern US job market is possibly the worst. You can do everything right and still not find an academic job and be forced to find another career.

But having said that, there are a few things you can do to maximize your chances for success. First, get into the best programs in the country working with the best, most famous, and most respected scholars in your field. I frankly think it's a waste of time going to a mediocre program just because you can get in.

Second, be strategic and aggressive in winning outside fellowships and grants.

Third, write a good dissertation. This seems obvious and of course many people with great dissertations still can't get jobs. Yes, yes that is true. But you'd be surprised about the number of people who complain about not finding a job despite having tons (probably too much) teaching experience and winning a couple grants and then when you look at their dissertation, it's rather boring and dull. Or badly written. Or just not good. This is one of the few things you can control so keep it in mind.

Fourth, for heaven's sakes learn from others! Talk with faculty and grad students outside US history about research and methods. You will learn more about communicating to people outside your field and will end up with a much richer dissertation.

Fifth, learn how to talk and communicate well in writing and speaking. Most job talks and conference presentations are awful and boring. If you can rise even a little from the rest in communication ability, you will go far. So go to every single academic talk, job talk, conferenc you can to learn good and bad examples. And take every opportunity for public speaking. And practice writing.

I miss the stimulating readings and discussions I had while in grad school. I try to read a lot and write when some topic interests me, but it was intellectually stimulating to read books for hours and write papers

I would caution you to begin thinking about jobs early though. When I graduated it took 2 years to get a job. That was during the heart of the recession, but you can't start thinking about that too early