A call to historians and policymakers
Carolyn Holbrook, Lyndon Megarrity and David Lowe
‘Seeing the world without the past would be like visiting a city after a devastating hurricane and declaring that the people there have always lived in ruins’, wrote the American historian Steven Stoll in his 2017 study of Appalachia.1 Stoll’s observation evocatively describes the belief that motivated us – a group of concerned academic historians – to write this book. Today, the world appears more volatile than it has been for many decades and our problems more intractable. Besides our descent into irreversible climate change, there is the threat of major conflict between the West and Russia and China, and the unthinkable truth that the United States might soon no longer be a democracy. Our politicians and policymakers need at their disposal the best information in order to make decisions of untold consequence. This includes a sound knowledge of history. Politicians and policymakers must see the world with the past.
Lessons from History provides a roadmap for this vital knowledge, laying bare how history can and, indeed, should inform public debate. It is a book for politicians, policymakers, community workers, journalists and engaged citizens, as well as historians. Far from seeking to offer crude historical ‘lessons’ or rigid templates that might be imposed upon contemporary problems, instead, we are interested in history’s capacity to enlarge and contextualise public debates. At the very least, we expect that those engaged in policymaking and policy debate will agree that rich context is a desirable ingredient in good policy and decision-making. Historical literacy may not always lead to better policy, but we maintain that history is fundamental to understanding context – which, from its Latin roots, means weaving together or drawing on surrounding circumstances.
Historians have traditionally been reluctant to engage in debates on policy. There are various reasons for this. For one, the historical profession has legacies and characteristics, many of them admirable, which have traditionally inhibited our capacity to participate in policy debates. At the same time, policymakers often lack the time to read our books and scholarly articles for their present-day lessons. And academic performance measures do not reward us for writing concise material that would better suit a policy audience, though universities are trying to devise ways to respond to government pressure to measure ‘impact and engagement’. Lessons from History responds to the challenge of condensing rigorous historical research in ways that make it useful to time-pressed practitioners.
In addition, academic historians can be suspicious of any approach that has them wedded too closely to the ‘state’. They are also wary of ‘instrumentalism’, the notion that the value of their work can be reduced to simple, often government-defined, objectives that come and go easily, in contrast to the bolder idea of contributing to knowledge. As the examples presented in this book suggest, such tensions might be real but they can be managed. We hope that they provide inspiration for other historians.
In recent times, there has been a clear turn towards policy history. The United States has led efforts to highlight the significance of history for international relations. The Kennedy School at Harvard has long been a focus for government–academic exchanges. In 2002, the American Historical Association founded the National History Center in Washington DC, which allows historians to speak directly to politicians and their staffers. The Luskin Center for History and Policy at the University of California in Los Angeles and the Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest at Villanova College were both established in 2017.
In the United Kingdom, the History and Policy Network, established in 2002, continues strongly. And in Australia, the Australian Policy and History network, founded in 2010 and directed from Deakin University, with partners ANU and the University of Melbourne, is highly active in the intersection between history and public policy. Among our many activities are annual conferences where historians, policymakers and journalists have the chance to rub shoulders and exchange ideas.
Taken together, these efforts across the world suggest that historians are increasingly willing to make their voices heard in the public forum. Lessons from History builds on this momentum by presenting a unique and accessible collection of historical reflections on vital policy issues for Australia.
Our opening three chapters tackle questions about the role of history in politics and policy. They are intended to provoke both historians and policymakers to think about how they can work profitably together. Graeme Davison stresses that the history discipline’s tendency to study a large range of factors, and their complex relationships to one another, serves as a useful corrective to the limitations of policymakers viewing issues in splendid isolation. Frank Bongiorno shows how politicians, bolstered by think tanks and elements of the media, have frequently used an overly simplified, decontextualised version of past events to justify their policies. Throwing down the gauntlet, Bongiorno calls on fellow historians to play their part in fostering contextualised historical literacy by engaging with the public and presenting alternative perspectives in various mediums. In relation to this task, James Walter suggests that historians ‘seize the moment’: accelerated by COVID-19, the assumptions of neoliberalism and the ‘historical narrative’ it is based on are now being widely questioned. What then, can, historians bring to policies and debates?
The ensuing chapters rove widely across politics and economic, social, civic and security policy. They set topical issues in their historical context and, based on the lessons of history, provide recommendations for policymakers and citizens.
Yves Rees’ chapter challenges basic concepts of growth and progress. Rees urges historians to champion non-linear ways of thinking about time in order to detach ourselves from the progressive narratives that have abetted climate destruction. Similarly, in tracing the extent to which a mindset of growth and development has determined water policy, Andrea Gaynor, Margaret Cook, Lionel Frost, Jenny Gregory, Ruth Morgan, Martin Shanahan and Peter Spearritt demonstrate the urgent need to conceive water as a life-giving resource rather than a commodity.
Australia’s relations with the rest of the world are a major theme of this collection. In response to rising tensions with China, Hugh White suggests that Australia might find more valuable historical lessons among the causes of the First World War than the Second, while cautioning against clumsy misappropriations of history, especially those assuming that all adversaries can be treated the same. In their chapter on Australia–China trade, Philip Chang, Jeff Hole and Kieran Brockman highlight the danger of megaphone diplomacy. David Lowe argues that government has failed to capitalise on popular interest in Australia’s international reputation in ways that can build public support for its foreign aid program.
Economic themes feature prominently in this volume. In his analysis of multinational companies in Australia, Simon Ville finds that these corporations have, on balance, made a positive contribution, although striking the right balance between economic benefit and national security can challenge policymakers. Andrew Leigh tackles the issue of rising wealth inequality. He argues that Australian political culture needs to discard the values of neoliberalism and rebuild a consensus around fairness and compassion. Jeff Hole’s chapter traces the history of electricity reform, underlining the need for long-term leadership and planning by government, and the importance of reaching consensus on emissions reduction. Joan Beaumont considers the legacy of the Great Depression in popular, political and policy memory. While the Depression no longer serves as a source of policy inspiration, its status as the worst economic crisis ever faced by Australia has been frequently invoked in order to justify the drastic policies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This book also considers the history of policymaking in relation to migrant communities in Australia. Examining the experiences of Sri Lankan refugees, Niro Kandasamy demonstrates that when governments have sought input from refugee and migrant communities about settlement services, outcomes have been stronger and fairer. Mahsheed Ansari’s chapter acknowledges the pervasiveness of anti-Muslim sentiment in Australian history, but also finds much more than survival amid fear. Ansari argues that recent anti-Muslim behaviour is easily stirred by internal political and external factors, but with strong leadership, is replaced by more affirming stories of Muslim Australia. Mia Martin Hobbs analyses war crimes by Australian soldiers and our allies, arguing that atrocities committed in war are deeply entrenched expressions of society, culture and politics.
The interaction between policy and community organising is also explored in this volume. In his chapter, Evan Smith shows how coalitions of grassroots activists have been effective in the past in combating racism, fascism and white supremacy. He proposes effective ways to respond to the concerning increase in recent years of far right–wing activism. Laura Rademaker and Ian Anderson reveal that the history of Indigenous self-determination in Australia has, in its persistence and vitality, surmounted the efforts of governments since the 1970s to define and prescribe self-determination with limitations attached.
Several contributors explore the theme of gender using an historical lens. Claire E.F. Wright’s chapter praises the increasing representation of women in corporate leadership, though her analysis underlines the need for greater diversity among the women who are rising through the ranks. Using oral history interviews, Carla Pascoe Leahy shows that policies assisting working mothers have emphasised narrow economic goals such as productivity without sufficiently acknowledging the broader societal objectives of parental and child wellbeing. In their review of domestic violence policy, Ann Curthoys, Catherine Kevin and Zora Simic distinguish between a decades-long tradition of admirable policy and the far patchier story of its implementation.
The final two chapters look at areas of civic policy vital to the nation’s future. Lyndon Megarrity finds that plans to develop Australia’s north have suffered from persistently abstract grandiosity, at the expense of evidence-based need. Finally, Carolyn Holbrook examines the history of civic apathy in Australia and implores political leaders to resist the appeal of Anzackery and dedicate public funding to the kind of civics education that might motivate Australians to reform the federation.
While history might not provide quick-fixes, the twenty-two essays contained in Lessons from History add span, depth, context and, above all, wisdom, to our policymaking repertoire. This book joins a rising tide of civic activism among exasperated historians. As ‘citizen-historians’, we will not stand by while the stumps of democratic governance are white-anted, while wealth inequality reaches the grotesque levels of previous eras, and while vested interests block necessary action on climate change.2 We present this collection to politicians and policymakers in the hope it can help to improve our degraded system of political decision-making. We also hope that it encourages more historians to lend their expertise to the major public issues of our time. Yes, historians study the past. But we are passionately concerned about the present and the future. And we know that an awareness of history is one of the best ways to understand the present and prepare for the future.