In 1857 the gentleman in the picture to the left, Gustave Flaubert, was put on trial for affronting public and religious morality with his book, 'Madame Bovary'. He was acquitted but the publicity ensured the success of the book (although it is a good read) and is one of the lessons from history that censors often have to weigh. The words above on the ignorance of history are attributed to Flaubert.
On December 5th an independent initiative, the History & Policy website, was launched to encourage the use of the lessons of history to make better government policy.
History & Policy is the brainchild of historians at Cambridge and London Universities who believe today’s ‘evidence-based’ policy environment would benefit from more historical input.
Social historian Pat Thane explains:
"We believe that policymaking could gain from paying more attention to history. History can help unravel how today’s policy problems have been constructed and dispel the ‘golden-ageism’ that often dominates public discourse. For instance, boys’ underachievement at school is often assumed to be a recent problem caused by family breakdown and a lack of male role models. In fact, governments have been concerned about this since at least the mid-nineteenth century when divorce was rare. History could help today’s policymakers focus on the real issue, which is how to educate boys and whether they need a different school culture to girls, rather than blaming the ‘broken society’."
History & Policy works to increase the links between historians and those analysing, discussing and deciding public policy in the UK today, and makes historians and their research findings more accessible to policy and media audiences.
They have made available at their website papers on a variety of policy areas, using history to illuminate them.
For example, there is A central role for local government? The example of late Victorian Britain and The Hidden History of Housing. Other areas covered are democracy, family, media, education, health, pensions, crime and many more all in historical perspective and written in reasonably accessible language.
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