All College of the Atlantic students must take one history course, preferably within their first two years. History courses at COA aim to meet one or both of the following goals:

Provide students with the opportunity to master in depth a body of historical knowledge which teaches them how to master similar bodies of knowledge in other areas

Provide students with the opportunity to master a rigorous historical approach to some question or topic that allows them to understand how to historicize and analyze complex phenomena from the past.

A wide range of history classes is available, from political and intellectual history to art and music. Popular history classes include: Age of Reason and the Enlightenment, History of Western Music, History of Film, History and Policy of North Atlantic Fisheries, Environmental History, Island Life, and Philosophy in a Nutshell.