How does one become a professional historian?
Cathorio is right. What you need is to become affiliated with a particular institution (which, if you’re already doing a degree, I presume you are). Whilst as another answerer pointed out you don’t REALLY need all of those credentials, they certainly make life a lot easier. Academics will tend to pay your theories more attention, along with publishing houses and the general public. Also the more you are educated, the more you’ll understand your field and be able to write structured arguments- stands to reason! You’ll need to specialise. You don’t hear of professional ‘historians’ as much as you hear of ‘Napoleonic historians’ or ‘post-Colonial historians’. So find an area that really interests you and excel at it! Never stop reading and writing. Aim to reach the zenith of a particular sub-specialisation; find out who is already there and pick their work apart- challenge what you can, but remember to keep your facts based on what you have learnt and not to directly insult that person! A
