The School of History dates back to the national history specialty of Sanjiang Normal School, which was founded in 1902. The history department was established in 1952 through the merger of the Department of History and the Department of Border Politics of the former National Central University and the Department of History of Jinling University. In December 2014, the Department of History was reorganized into the School of History of Nanjing University, which consists of the Department of Chinese History, the Department of World History, the Department of Archaeology and Cultural Relics, the Institute of International Relations, and the Institute of Chinese Border Politics.

The school has a strong faculty of 98 members, of whom 80 are full-time teachers. The faculty includes 35 professors, 22 associate professors, 1 lecturer, 6 assistant professors, 14 full-time research staff members, and 2 Yuxiu postdoctoral fellows. In addition, the Institute of Archaeology, Museology and Chinese Civilization at the Suzhou Campus has 5 full-time faculty members. Many members of the faculty graduated from prestigious universities in home and abroad, including Harvard University, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Pennsylvania. The school currently has 3 National Leading Talents and 3 National Young Talents, as well as 3 Honorary Senior Professors of Nanjing University and 3 Distinguished Professors of Nanjing University, 19 recipients of the State Council Special Government Allowance, 7 selected as the New Century Talents by the Ministry of Education, 8 recipients of Jiangsu Province’s 333 Project, and 8 for recipients of Jiangsu Province’s Blue Project.

In 1995, the school was designated by the Ministry of Education as one of its national base for humanities talent cultivation and research. In 1996, the Ministry of Personnel approved the school’s establishment of post-doctoral mobile research station at the school. The school became one of the first in the country to be included in the national Project 2011. In 1998, upon appraisal by the State Council’s Academic Degrees Commission, the school was thus permitted to enroll doctoral students to its first level discipline of history.

 The Department of Chinese History and the Department of World History were selected by the Ministry of Education for the Strengthening Basic Disciplines Program and the Double Ten Thousand Plan, and are national bases for cultivating talents in basic disciplines.At the school, while World History is a national key discipline, Modern Chinese History and Archaeology are key disciplines of Jiangsu Province, with its research and teaching faculty recognized as an 'Outstanding Faculty Team' in Jiangsu Province. Its Center for the history of Republican China is a Ministry-of-Education key research base of the humanities and social sciences. The newly founded Institute of International Relations is now also enrolling graduate students.

Through the dedicated efforts of generations of scholars, the school has already developed a relatively complete teaching system. The School of History currently comprises three first-level disciplines, namely Chinese History, World History, and Archaeology, and offers two undergraduate programs: History and Archaeology. It offers four doctoral programs: Chinese History, World History, Archaeology, and International Relations. It offers five academic master’s programs: Archaeology, Chinese History, World History, International Relations, and Diplomacy, as well as two professional master’s programs: Cultural Heritage and Museology. The school has a total of 736 students, including 283 doctoral students, 215 master’s students, and 238 undergraduates.

The School of History has always emphasized cultivating well-rounded talents of high caliber with broad adaptability. In addition to required courses in the General History of China and the General History of the World, undergraduates also select from a wide range of cultural literacy courses and applied courses. Courses such as the History of Western Civilization, the History of Chinese Culture, Studies on Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Issues, the History of the Chinese Economy, and Official Document Writing have been well received by students. Faculty and students in the Archaeology program have long been engaged in fieldwork, as well as the excavation and cataloguing of cultural relics.

In recent years, faculty members of the School have achieved remarkable results and received numerous honors across multiple research fields. Zhang Xianwen's edited volume A Thematic History of the Republic of China (18 vols.) received the First Prize of the 8th Higher Education Outstanding Research Achievement Award (Humanities and Social Sciences); Hu A’xiang's monograph My Country and Its Names: A Study of Dynastic Titles and Historical Designations of China was awarded the Second Prize of the Ninth Higher Education Scientific Research Outstanding Achievement Awards (Humanities and Social Sciences); Zhang Sheng and Chen Haiyi's edited collection Archival Documents of the Lytton Commission (19 vols.) won the Second Prize of the 6th Guo Moruo Chinese History Award, among other major honors. Since the launch of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the School has also recorded new achievements in research grant applications, successfully securing two Major Projects of the National Social Science Fund of China (principal investigators: Zhang Sheng and Li Gongjun) and three Special Research Projects on Major Historical Issues from the Chinese Academy of History (principal investigators: Yu Wenjie, Zhu Hongjun, and Zhang Liangren).

The School of History actively pursues international exchange and collaboration, having established close partnerships with world-renowned universities and research institutions including the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the University of London, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Paris, Stanford University, and Princeton University. Hundreds of distinguished overseas professors and visiting scholars have come to the School to lecture and engage in academic exchange. International students and researchers have also pursued master’s and doctoral degrees here or undertaken postdoctoral research. The School has also hosted a number of large-scale international academic conferences in fields such as the History of the Republic of China, British History, Chinese Social History, Contemporary Taiwan Studies, and European Studies.

The School of History at Nanjing University warmly welcomes scholars and colleagues from distinguished universities and research institutions worldwide to visit, engage in academic exchange, and explore opportunities for collaboration.