Using Archives to Inform Contemporary Policy Debates: History into Policy?

Evidence-based policy-making has long been a significant method of government. Academics in a range of disciplines have contributed in supplying the evidence on which, in part, governments develop their policies. However, the arts and humanities, and in this case historians, are less well represented in this influencing role. In May 2008, The National Archives, in partnership with History and Policy, was awarded a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to run a series of workshops under its Collaborative Research Training Scheme, on ‘Using Archival Sources to Inform Contemporary Policy Debates.’ The purpose was to explore the relevance of history—and the archival sources that underpin it—to policy-making and to identify areas where this had been done, more or less successfully. In describing the workshop and analyzing its outcomes, the authors identify emerging themes and explore ways in which other archive services might implement similar initiatives.