History classes, especially in college, tend to be large lectures with the instructor running a powerpoint, while students take down notes. Exams are infrequent and will occasionally include an essay that may require a bit of critical thinking, but the overwhelming majority of the work just goes into absorbing information. I happen to like history, and it's not too difficult because I have a good memory, but it certainly isn't really a thinking class. Actually, the best history class I've had was fairly small, but we spent most of the class time discussing what was going on, instead of having it just being dumped on us. Most history classes aren't like that though.