历史系提供了各种课程，涉及从中世纪初期到现在的美洲，欧洲，亚洲和非洲的政治，社会，外交，知识，经济和文化历史。该系致力于让学生对特定时间，地点和人类状况的特定掌握，以及对过去和现代现象进行历史思考的关键技能，强调随着时间的变化和连续性的动态变化。宾夕法尼亚大学的历史系有着悠久的区分传统。作为美国历史上最早提供博士学位研究的计划之一，该系继续开拓新的奖学金领域。在过去的20年中，美国，欧洲和世界历史学系的教职员工在引入和推广历史研究和写作的新品种方面发挥了领导作用。如今，没有任何其他机构可以超越宾夕法尼亚大
The Department of History offers a variety of courses dealing with the political, social, diplomatic, intellectual, economic, and cultural history of the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, from the early medieval period to the present. The department seeks to give undergraduates both specific mastery of particular times, places, and aspects of the human condition and the critical skills to think historically about both long-term and modern phenomena, emphasizing the dynamics of change and continuity over time. The History Department at the University of Pennsylvania has a long tradition of distinction. Beginning as one of the first programs in the United States to offer doctoral study in history, the department continues to pioneer new areas of scholarship. In the last twenty years, faculty members of the departments in American, European, and World history have assumed a leading role in introducing and promoting new varieties of historical research and writing. Today, no other institution surpasses the Penn history department's coverage of social history or equals the distinction of its faculty in that field.