A degree in history is actually a pretty good degree. It is one of the most common undergraduate degrees for law school and other advanced disciplines that require a hell of a lot of reading and, more importantly, analysis.
I imagine, or at least hope, he got some use out of his history degree by now. Back then, tuition wasn’t life-threateningly expensive as now, either.
I read a blog post once by a woman who had post graduate degrees and professional experience in nuclear physics. She had chucked it all and gone to work for a small museum doing maintenance-type physical labor. I made a comment on her blog about what a waste of money and resources her education had turned out to be. She sent me an angry email, insisting that I had no idea about the amount of skills necessary to do the work she was doing.