H&P’s project to digitise its collection of policy papers marks a significant step forward in getting high-quality history within easy grasp of policy makers, civil society practitioners and journalists.
All policy papers published in 2014 are now available as ebooks - digital downloads for Apple, Kindle and other e-readers, as well as tablets, smartphones and laptops.
What’s more, they are free. So you can read high-quality history from leading historians on the move, on the beach, in a café or library…wherever you happen to be.
H&P Director Dr Lucy Delap said:
In keeping with H&P’s aim to make high quality history accessible to a broad audience, these e-book policy papers are a significant development. They allow readers to download, read and make notes on H&P policy papers on the move or at home – making them even more usable and available.
As far as we know, it’s a first – and sets King’s College London and Cambridge University apart from other knowledge exchange projects.
H&P policy papers are unique in offering policy lessons and ideas drawn from expert historical research. They can help policy makers avoid repeating past mistakes and widen the range of options available, based on an understanding of what worked or failed previously, and why.
H&P’s 2014 policy papers offer rich pickings for those interested in the historical background to contemporary debates about prostitution and the law, mental health services for older people, London’s third airport in the 1970s, Russia and Ukraine, the role of history in Northern Ireland’s reconciliation, 19th century war commemorations, Scottish local government, and post-WW2 reconstruction in Germany. See all policy papers published this year: http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers
H&P will digitise its entire collection of 162 policy papers in the coming months.
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.
