Abstract
In the concluding chapter, Green considers the forms that historical work in government might take, reflecting in particular on the annotated files produced by Treasury historians in post-Second World War Britain and the research done by historians in legislative arenas. She provides a succinct account of six principles on which to base a programme for history in policy, which emphasise the need for historians to work in collaboration with other experts as insiders and advisers, rather than remain external critics of policy. The chapter concludes with comments on the collective nature of any effort to reimagine the the future of history as a discipline. All those who have a stake in historical understanding have a legitimate role in the debate, including elected politicians and the public.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
I am grateful to Christoph Kühberger of the Pedagogical University of Salzburg for his insights, offered in a conference paper, on the private uses of the past and the potential for ethnological understanding of children’s real-world encounters with history.
- 2.
P. Beck, Using History, Making British Policy: The Treasury and the Foreign Office, 1950–76 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), pp. 62, 73. Communications to Cabinet Secretary and Joint Permanent Secretary of the Treasury and Head of the Civil Service, Sir Norman Brook, who had instigated the ‘funding experience’ initiative, 9th July 1958 and 30th July 1959.
- 3.
S. Eden, ‘Green, Gold and Grey Geography: Legitimating Academic and Policy Expertise,’ Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 30, no. 3 (2005), p. 285.
- 4.
D. Vaughan, ‘NASA Revisited: Theory, Analogy, and Public Sociology,’ American Journal of Sociology 112, no. 2 (2006).
- 5.
B. L. R. Smith, The Advisers: Scientists in the Policy Process (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1992), p. 205. This reflects the ‘complex, fluid environment’ behind the ‘observable reality’ of politics: see M. Flinders and A. Kelso, ‘Mind the Gap: Political Analysis, Public Expectations and the Parliamentary Decline Thesis,’ The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 13, no. 2 (2011).
- 6.
Selected publications of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office historians can be read here: https://issuu.com/fcohistorians [accessed 2/11/15]. Treasury Historical Memoranda are open to the public at the National Archives, reference T267.
- 7.
E. A. Fisher, ‘Legislative Reference,’ The American Political Science Review 3, no. 2 (1909); J. McKirdy, ‘The Legislative Reference Bureau of Pennsylvania,’ University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register 59, no. 3 (1910).
- 8.
H. Putnam, ‘Legislative Reference for Congress,’ The American Political Science Review 9, no. 3 (1915).
- 9.
See, for example: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lrb [accessed 2/11/15]. Wisconsin was an early pioneer of legislative reference work.
- 10.
R. Conard, Benjamin Shambaugh and the Intellectual Foundations of Public History (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2002), p. 33. Emphasis mine.
- 11.
The OPC was founded as Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury in 1869, transferred to the new Civil Service Department post-Fulton, then to the Cabinet Office in 1980.
- 12.
M. Fulbrook, Historical Theory (Abingdon: Routledge, 2002), pp. 95–6.
- 13.
L. Jordanova, ‘Public History: A Provocation,’ (2015).
- 14.
R. Samuel, Theatres of Memory: Past and Present in Contemporary Culture (London: Verso, 1994), p. 15. Also: ‘History Workshop Journal,’ History Workshop, no. 1 (1976), pp. 1–3. One treatment that does deal explicitly with conceptual matters: L. Jordanova, History in Practice, 2nd ed. (London: Hodder Arnold, 2006), chapter 6.
- 15.
J. Rüsen, ‘The Didactics of History in West Germany: Towards a New Self-Awareness of Historical Studies,’ History and Theory 26, no. 3 (1987).
- 16.
In the journal, History and Theory, see for example: M. I. Finley, ‘Myth, Memory, and History,’ History and Theory 4, no. 3 (1965); P. Rabinowitz, ‘Wreckage Upon Wreckage: History, Documentary and the Ruins of Memory,’ History and Theory 32, no. 2 (1993); E. Runia, ‘ “Forget About It”:“Parallel Processing” in the Srebrenica Report,’ History and Theory 43, no. 3 (2004); A. Giorgos, ‘The Lost Atlantis of Objectivity: The Revisionist Struggles between the Academic and Public Spheres,’ History and Theory 46, no. 4 (2007).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Green, A.R. (2016). Conclusions: Towards a History with Public Purpose. In: History, Policy and Public Purpose. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52086-9_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52086-9_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-52085-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52086-9
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)