History & policy database
Policy Papers
History & Policy papers are written by expert historians, based on peer-reviewed research. They offer historical insights into current policy issues ranging from Afghanistan and Iraq, climate change and internet surveillance to family dynamics, alcohol consumption and health reforms. For historians interested in submitting a paper, please see the editorial guidelines.
Currently, 252 papers are freely searchable by theme, author or keyword, with new papers published regularly. Where possible, we publish papers to coincide with relevant policy developments. If you are a policy maker, civil society practitioner or journalist and would like to contact one of our historians, please contact [email protected].
You can download H&P policy papers directly from the Apple iBooks store to your iPhone, iPad or Mac. We also have an Amazon Kindle version to download to your PC for transfer to your Kindle via USB cable. Please consult your Kindle manual for further details.
The right of registration: development, identity registration and social security
Many of the world's poorest countries have no comprehensive identity systems, seen as an unaffordable post-development luxury. English history shows how a comprehensive identity registration system, linked also to a universalist social security system were important causes, not merely consequences of the first industrial revolution. History also cautions that identity registration systems are such powerful tools that great care should be devoted to the ethical aspects of access and control of the information to ensure it serves the liberty of private individuals, not the purposes of commercial organisations or states.
Read MoreRationing returns: a solution to global warming?
Introduction Over the past decade a political consensus has emerged that climate change is a problem and that the UK needs to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions dramatically to tackle it. The three steps necessary to cut carbon emissions are well known: reducing energy consumption, increasing energy efficiency and shifting from non-renewable to renewable sources […]
Read MoreAberfan: no end of a lesson
Introduction If you are over fifty, you know where you were and what you were doing on 21 October 1966. There are only two other days like that: the day Kennedy was assassinated, and the day Diana died. Four TV documentaries and extensive newspaper coverage of the 40th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster have told […]
Read MoreWolfenden and beyond: the remaking of homosexual history
Introduction The efforts by religious conservatives in early 2007 – a holy alliance of evangelical Protestants, Roman Catholics and Islamicists – to block the implementation of regulations to protect the rights of lesbians and gay men in relation to the provision of goods and services reminds us that the long tail of a dying history […]
Read MoreWhat is to be done with the second chamber?
Introduction For Blair and New Labour, reform of the House of Lords remains unfinished business. In 1999 the government transformed the composition of the upper house by removing all but 92 of the hereditary peers. This was trailed as the first stage in a more thoroughgoing modernisation of the second chamber, but the government has […]
Read MoreHistory and policy at work in the Treasury, 1957-76
Introduction Drawing upon papers published on the History and Policy website, in February 2006 John Tosh discussed issues pertaining to history's contribution to public policy. In particular, history offers policymakers a broader perspective on today's problems, even if – to quote Tosh – 'one of the most likely casualties of this kind of extended perspective […]
Read MoreIs it futile to try to get non-resident fathers to maintain their children?
Introduction Many people think that unmarried mothers are a recent phenomenon. However, the structures of family life widely believed to be new since the 1960s – cohabitation, many births outside marriage and transient family relationships – have a much longer history. Courtship and marriage have always been vulnerable to breakdown. Historically, men and women who […]
Read MoreThe Child Support Agency and the Old Poor Law
Introduction The creation of the Child Support Agency (CSA) was first proposed in a 1990 White Paper, Children Come First, which also suggested the establishment of a formula-based system for the assessment of child maintenance. This represented a significant break with the past, for prior to this, matters of child support had been a matter […]
Read MorePaying the price again: prostitution policy in historical perspective
Introduction In July 2004, the Home Office published Paying the Price, a consultation paper on commercial sex in the UK which provided information and opinions on a wide variety of problems associated with on- and off-street prostitution. The paper was prepared under the auspices of the then Home Secretary David Blunkett, who was envisioning a […]
Read MorePolicing the Windrush generation
Introduction In 2004, during the course of research for the book Unhappy Dialogue the author discovered that Community and Race Relations Training for Metropolitan Police officers takes as it starting point the 1981 Brixton riots and the ensuing Report by Lord Scarman. The popular perception of when difficulties in the relationship between Britain's black community […]
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About Us
H&P is based at the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, University of London.
We are the only project in the UK providing access to an international network of more than 500 historians with a broad range of expertise. H&P offers a range of resources for historians, policy makers and journalists.
