Qualifications
It takes more than just an interest in history to become a historian, which means that even though your Uncle Leo might get riled up about the hostility of the North during the Civil War (and shows up to family dinners wearing a dusty Confederate gray uniform), he's not a historian.
Actually being a historian is something very few people can claim. To become an authority in all things historical you must spend your fair share of time in school. A bachelor's degree is the least of your troubles; most historians have a master's in some kind of historical specialty, like revolutionary America or Elizabethan England (source).
![ALTTEXT](https://media1.shmoop.com/images/career/historian10.png)
Certificate programs focusing on teaching you specific skills that you'll need on the job come in handy too (source). These are offered by all those fancy-shmancy historical societies. We imagine you'll take the exam at a mahogany desk while a pipe-smoking old man stares at you over his mustache.