There is now a growing debate about the concept of 'Applied History' - how far, and in what ways, the lessons of the past might be utilised to improve policymaking on present and future challenges. This remains a subject of controversy within the academy, and those who make the case for Applied History have sometimes been accused of 'presentism' and 'going beyond the documents'. Yet Applied History connects to a much older vision of history, one in which the past offers entry to - in the words of John Robert Seeley - a unique 'school of statesmanship'. In this paper, Robert Crowcroft will highlight the ways in which a historical cast of mind can stimulate the imagination and provoke bold thinking. While there are important limitations to using the past in this way, nevertheless history stands in close relation to practical life.

Dr. Robert Crowcroft is a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary History at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Attlee’s War: World War II and the Making of a Labour Leader and a forthcoming book entitled The End is Nigh: British Politics, Power and the Road to the Second World War. Read his article on 'The Case for Applied History,' published in History Today (Sept. 2018).

Dr. Maeve Ryan is Lecturer in History and Grand Strategy at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, where she is developing the new Grand Strategy Programme. At the heart of the Grand Strategy Programme is applied history: the aim is to bring more historical and strategic expertise to statecraft, diplomacy and foreign policy. She is currently completing a Leverhulme Early Career research fellowship project, entitled ‘The British Empire and the Geopolitics of Human Rights in the Nineteenth Century.’