Past Answers to Present Concerns. The Relevance of the Premodern Past for 21st Century Policy Planners: Comments on the State of the Field

This engaging paper by Prof John Haldon and Prof Thomas McGovern et al, is published in the leading peer-reviewed journal WIREs Climate Change. The paper raises valuable questions and makes helpful observations concerning historical sciences and humanities disciplines, on one hand, and twenty-first century policymaking.

How is history relevant to the present, or indeed the future? This article briefly reviews challenges such as identifying “lessons from the past” and "the uses of history" within the context of climate change and associated environmental and sustainability issues, comments on recent work in the field, and suggests some ways forward for historians.

Access the full open-access article here.