Why I Study History

The Relationship Between History and Policy

NUIG MA History Seminar Presentation, 27 March 2012 

 The appointment of a special board of eleven historians to help the government prepare appropriately for the upcoming Decade of Centenaries, including the Ulster Covenant and the Easter Rising, is evidence that the study of history is still of considerable importance in the running of a country. (Once I used to think that you would celebrate one of those and protest in whatever appropriate or inappropriate way at the other - and anyone who attempted to celebrate both was a hypocrite...but anyway.) 

Historians can assist in deconstructing conceptions of past occurrences which are open to different interpretations, they can examine current popular belief concerning topical issues and they can assess how 'our actions and thoughts are conditioned by the heritage of the past', and are thus not as valid, as rational, and as necessary as we believe they are. Quentin Smith says that 'the stories we tell about ourselves are always and unavoidable partial...it becomes the task of the historian to ensure that such stories are not uncritically accepted.' By doing this historians can, undoubtedly, make a valuable contribution to public policy: for example John Bew's work in examining the role of Ulster Presbyterians in the 1798 rebellion reminds one that the version of irrational, sectarian Unionism that exists in Northern Ireland today may not be the only interpretation of Unionism in existence, and thus encourages government to consider more deeply the original intentions of Unionism. My own study of Thomas Davis' version of a united Irish nation which firmly valued both Catholics and Protestants, and also of the Orange Order in Northern Ireland which became the final refuge of an increasingly alienated sector of Ulster society opened my understanding, and indeed developed my criticism, of policy development in Northern Ireland. 

 In such deconstruction however, caution must always be exercised as deconstruction must always be accompanied with some form of reconstruction. Stefan Berg's words, 'It seems wiser to assume that society would be better off with weak and playful identities rather than those underpinned by a strong sense of a common national past', are alarming; just as a human being needs a strong sense of self-identity to perform to his or her full potential, so too does a nation. Public policy formation should start with this identity; historians should not simply be given the task of justifying already-created unpalatable policies to make them appeal to the nation. Historians can take current situations and make analogical comparisons with similar occurrences in the past, thus educating those who formulate public policy. 

One needs to be aware of the danger of looking for direct parallels in the past and thus predicting the future; successful use of history to guide current policy development will take into account the otherness of the past, the uniqueness of the present, and will at the same time 'reclaim some of the richness of past experiences'. A good example of this is Christopher Andrews examination of the 'Holy Terror'; he outlines that while US intelligence believes that the current war on terrorism, sparked by 9/11, is dealing with an entirely new adversary and thence requires unprecedented methods4, Early Modern Europe was also a society plagued by Muslim fanaticism in the form, for example, of Barbary ghuzat who saw themselves as religious warriors. A historical examiniation of this phenomenon ought to increase awareness for those involved in fighting against it. Likewise the study of economic history can increase understanding of the current recession; a recent study I carried out on the development of Antwerp in the sixteenth century outlined how the entrepreneurship of immigrants into the area was encouraged by the traditional stress put on 'values such as achievement, competition, toleration, industry, thrift and calculation'; these values had created a pro-enterprise culture'. As today's policy-makers seek to encourage entrepreneurship in Ireland, a consideration of successful enterprise cultures would no doubt be useful. 

NUIG MA class 2011-2012

 Personally I believe that historians have a vital role to play in the formation of public policy; much depends upon their own historical beliefs however, and it would be hoped that in Ireland those who have remained loyal to the essence of Irish identity would be the ones who have the greatest impact on the policy formation.