What Is the Value of History in Policymaking?

Ministers and officials regularly invoke the phrase ‘learning the lessons from history’ without appreciating what it actually means. Understanding what history is, how it can help, is an important part of making good policy decisions.

What Is the Value of History in Policymaking? calls for a more systematic approach to embedding history within the policy process and offers clear examples of how officials can increase their consumption of policy-relevant historical research.

This report is based on a series of seminars organised by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC’s) Care for the Future: Thinking Forward Through the Past and Translating Cultures research themes and the Institute for Government.