History is one of the oldest and most glorious academic disciplines at Tsinghua University. After its establishment in 1911, Tsinghua began to offer courses of Chinese and Western History. In 1926, the History Department was officially established, and its faculty then included many well-known scholars, such as Wang Guowei, Liang Qichao, Chen Yinque, Lu Maode, Jiang Tingfu, Liu Chonghong, Lei Haizong, Zhang Yinlin, Wu Han, Shao Xunzheng, Wang Xinzhong, Sun Yutang, Zhou Yiliang, Ding Zeliang, and so on, and under the influence of these scholars gradually took shape the academic tradition of “Zhongxi Yonghui, Gongjin Guangtong” (combining the Chinese and Western learning, linking the ancient and the modern). Many graduates from the Department became outstanding scholars in the fields of history. In the 1952 nationwide restructuring of institutions of higher education in China, the Department was abolished and the faculty members were moved to Peking University and other universities. In the following three decades, however, although Tsinghua did not have a history department, modern Chinese history was taught and studied at the university.

After the 1980s, Tsinghua began to restore its programs in humanities, and history was included. In 1985, the Institute of Humanities was founded, focusing mainly on the Chinese intellectual and cultural history. The History Department was re-created in 1993. The History Department and the Institute of Humanities were incorporated in 2003 and became current History Department. A strong faculty and a large collection of books and research materials in the department have brought the cooperation to the international level.