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 Iraq, ID cards and climate change to child maintenance and family dynamics. For historians interested in submitting a paper, please see the editorial guidelines.
There are over 140 papers and they are all freely searchable by theme, author or keyword. New papers are published regularly and you can keep up to date by signing up to our monthly newsletter. Where possible, we publish new papers to coincide with relevant policy developments: for more information, see our news page.
If you are a policymaker or journalist and would like to contact a historian, please contact us.
Latest papers
Choice, policy and practice in maternity care since 1948
Despite over 50 years of campaigning for improvements to NHS maternity services, media reports suggest that they are struggling to cope with demand, while new campaign groups call for women's choices and human rights in childbirth to be respected. Angela Davis of Warwick University puts these concerns in historical perspective, arguing that women's calls for both choice and safety need not be in conflict.
Published: May 2013
Liberal-Conservative Coalitions -'a farce and a fraud'?
In 1886 Liberal Unionist Lord Derby said coalition governments 'were always unpopular and seldom lasted long.' On the eve of the third anniversary of the current Coalition Government, Ian Cawood, of Newman University, assesses the performance, politics and popularity of the six previous coalition governments in the last 120 years - and the implications for relations between the parties in coalition today.
Published: May 2013
Seventy years and counting: the unsolved problem of press regulation
The Leveson Inquiry was the seventh government-commissioned inquiry into press regulation in the last seventy years. Tom O'Malley, Professor of Media at Aberystwyth University, predicts an eighth. He explores the long history of policy failure in this area, and critiques the polarised debate over 'State censorship versus free speech' that the newspaper industry promotes.
Published: March 2013