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.
Florence Nightingale’s Public Health Act, Covid-19 and the empowerment of local government
The nation's health turned a corner in the 1870s thanks to public health measures campaigned for by Nightingale, and implemented by well-financed Local Authorities. Hugh Small argues that it is this, rather than her hospital practice, that should inform our response to the pandemic.
Read MoreThe historical case for a federative Britain
England and Scotland as independent sovereign nations within a federative union? Kirsteen M. MacKenzie explores a possible seventeenth-century model.
Read MoreShould we abandon external exams for sixteen-year-olds? Strategic considerations from the 1940s
Andrew Watts reviews a 1940s attempt to abolish public external exams (like today's GSCEs and A-levels) and move to an internal examination model within schools. Especially in the light of events over the summer of 2020, is it time to revisit this debate?
Read MoreFoodbank Histories: solidarity and mutual aid in the past and the present
Policy makers can derive important lessons from this oral history of mutual aid, formal and informal, gathered at Newcastle West End Foodbank by Alison Atkinson-Phillips and colleagues.
Read MoreThe economic consequences of plague: lessons for the age of Covid-19
Guido Alfani traces the long-term effects of previous pandemics, and finds that a region's starting conditions are key to economic outcomes – and some consequences are still with us 600 years after the Black Death.
Read More‘The death of the high street’: town centres from post-war to Covid-19
The high street was already suffering before the extra pressure of lockdown, says Alistair Kefford, but town centres used to have wider social, civic and economic functions beyond just shopping. It is time for local authorities to adopt measures to rediscover them.
Read MoreHow technology has been used to deny benefits to the disabled
Technology is never neutral, says Coreen McGuire. Technologies and measurement systems with in-built bias have been used to define medical conditions, and limit access to compensation, throughout twentieth-century medical history.
Read MoreThe uses of historical research in child abuse inquiries
Gordon Lynch and a group of historians from across the world reflect on their roles in Inquiries into non-recent child abuse, and the tensions that can exist between historical research and the other purposes Inquiries serve
Read MoreSceptical yet supportive: understanding public attitudes to charity
Debates about the role and behaviour of charities are ongoing, alongside great public generosity such as in the recent case of veteran Captain Tom Moore's sponsored walk. The public needs to be better informed so that the debate is less ideological, say Beth Breeze and John Mohan.
Read MoreCovid-19 and the UK national debt in historical context
Duncan Needham traces the history of the National Debt – expected to exceed GDP in the course of the Covid crisis – and shows that the UK is capable of recovering from debt levels as high or higher, with the right instruments.
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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.
