of a social historian
An important aspect of any historian’s work is considering how the past and the present interact. Previous generations of historians may have dismissed this, insisting the past must be taken on its own terms, but most historians today would acknowledge that is not so simple. Even if we do not draw distinct policy lessons from our historical research, the concerns of our time are present in our work simply by providing our own intellectual and cultural context. It is impossible for our work not to be informed by us, however rigorously we adhere to empirical standards in our research and writing. One of the advantages of blogging is that it offers a space for thinking through those relationships between past and present, between us and our work.
The posts below all draw upon historical understanding in a variety of ways to comment on current policy issues, usually relating to my twin key themes of healthcare and charity.
Originally published on the VAHS blog as What is the big society and why should historians care? on 27 June 2011 Have you ever noticed that when politicians are asked ‘What is the big society?’ they tend to begin their answer ‘The big society is about…’? The term was coined by the Prime Minister’s media guru, …
Musings 