History & policy database
Historian’s Books
The Rise of Managerial Bureaucracy: Reforming the British Civil Service
Lorenzo Castellani traces the transformation of the UK Civil Service between 1979 and 2007 into a “managerial bureaucracy”.
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History, Historians and the Immigration Debate: Going Back to Where We Came From
The editors present their new collection of histories of immigration from across the globe, accompanied by an overarching discussion of the role the profession of history plays, or can play, in immigration debate.
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Alternatives to State-Socialism in Britain: Other Worlds of Labour in the Twentieth Century
The book’s essays explore neglected aspects of working class experience and political awareness over the twentieth century – including religious Nonconformity, self-organisation and left libertarianism – and shows how this diversity has been quashed by a narrative focussing on trade unions, nationalisation, class cohesion and secular state-socialism.
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Notes from Rio: the Always/Never Marvellous City
The Cidade Maravilhosa of the XXXI Olympiad has a rich and extraordinary history and a challenging present. Professor Daryle Williams presents his co-edited volume The Rio de Janeiro Reader: History, Culture, Politics, part history, part travel guide, and part indispensible background to the 2016 Games.
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A Civic Gospel for the 21st Century?
Ian Cawood introduces a new volume of collected essays on Joseph Chamberlain (I. Cawood & C. Upton (eds.) Joseph Chamberlain: International Statesman, National Leader, Local Icon (London: Palgrave Macmillian, 2016)). His introduction is followed by reflections on contemporary civic revival from a speech given at the conference which led to this book by Sir Albert Bore, former leader of Birmingham City Council.
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History, Policy and Public Purpose: Historians and Historical Thinking in Government
In her latest book, Alix Green seeks to re-explore the connection between history and policy, proposing that historians rediscover a sense of ‘public purpose’ that can embrace political decision-making and also enhance historical practice.
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The Cycling City: Bicycles and Urban America in the 1890s
By publishing The Cycling City, Dr. Evan Friss aimed to shine a light on the (seemingly forgotten) history of cycling in America's cities and place contemporary transport issues in to a wider historical context.
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The Power of the Past: History and Statecraft
Leading scholars and policymakers explore how history influences foreign policy and offer insights on how the study of the past can more usefully serve the present.
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Transport Policy: Learning Lessons from History
Inspired by developments in countries such as The Netherlands, Colin Divall & Colin Pooley published Transport Policy: Learning Lessons from History in order to demonstrate ways in which an understanding of history can be used to inform present-day transport and mobility policies.
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Pre-School Childcare in England, 1939-2010: Theory, Practice and Experience
In Pre-school childcare in England, 1939–2010, Dr Angela Davis sough to examine past attitudes towards pre-school childcare and see how those attitudes continue to influence those who work in forming and delivering childcare policy in the present day.
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