Government needs Historians
*** SALON 178: 17 December 2007 ***
reports:
'Governments need historians, says David Cannadine
David Cannadine, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Professor of British History at the Institute of Historical Research, says that politicians and civil servants make bad policy decisions because they lack historical knowledge. Speaking on 5 December 2007, at an event to launch a new organisation called History and Policy (), an organisation that aims to connect historians with policymakers and improve public policy through an understanding of history, he said: ‘I believe Whitehall departments should have historical advisers and the government should have a Chief Historical Adviser. Historians and politicians bring very different perspectives to bear on the contemporary world and greater dialogue between them would be beneficial to the policy process. Historians can suggest, on the basis of past precedents, what might or might not work and counsel against raising public expectations that policies will be instantly effective. This would be particularly valuable in policy areas such as constitutional reform, which have a long and complex history that must be understood to make the right decisions for today.’
The event was co-hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary History Group, whose Chairman, our Fellow Mark Fisher, MP, said: ‘an understanding of history is vital to the making of policy. Most of today’s major problems have their origins in the past and there is much that governments can learn from studying the successes and failures of our predecessors. The past is with us today: in foreign affairs, in education, in social policy, in economics. Only by studying that past will we be able to avoid repeating its mistakes.’
The suggested appointment of a Chief Historical Adviser was one that evoked mixed reactions from newspaper columnists and leader writers: the Independent said that politicians were very likely to appoint ‘a courtier or, worse, a propagandist’, while Peter Riddle, of The Times, thought that the bigger challenge was not just to persuade mandarins and politicians to think historically, but to be open to discussing parallels and precedents and to be willing to be informed by them, which is a much harder challenge for any minister.'
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reports:
'Governments need historians, says David Cannadine
David Cannadine, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Professor of British History at the Institute of Historical Research, says that politicians and civil servants make bad policy decisions because they lack historical knowledge. Speaking on 5 December 2007, at an event to launch a new organisation called History and Policy (
The event was co-hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary History Group, whose Chairman, our Fellow Mark Fisher, MP, said: ‘an understanding of history is vital to the making of policy. Most of today’s major problems have their origins in the past and there is much that governments can learn from studying the successes and failures of our predecessors. The past is with us today: in foreign affairs, in education, in social policy, in economics. Only by studying that past will we be able to avoid repeating its mistakes.’
The suggested appointment of a Chief Historical Adviser was one that evoked mixed reactions from newspaper columnists and leader writers: the Independent said that politicians were very likely to appoint ‘a courtier or, worse, a propagandist’, while Peter Riddle, of The Times, thought that the bigger challenge was not just to persuade mandarins and politicians to think historically, but to be open to discussing parallels and precedents and to be willing to be informed by them, which is a much harder challenge for any minister.'
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