Lessons from History: Leading Historians Tackle Australia's Greatest Challenges

Insightful essays on the complex backstories of today's policy challenges.

Lessons from History demonstrates the real-world relevance of historical understanding in national and international policymaking. Leading historians tackle Australia's greatest challenges―climate change, social cohesion, migration, our relationship with China, economic crisis, trade relations―and show how the past provides context and knowledge that can guide us in the present and future.

This is a book for politicians, policymakers, journalists, engaged citizens, and historians. It offers a roadmap for vital knowledge, laying bare how history can and should inform public debate. It shows how historical literacy is fundamental to understanding context, which is essential for good policy and decision-making.

David Lowe is Chair of Contemporary History at Deakin University and co-founder of the Australian Policy and History Network. Recent books include (with Carola Lentz) Remembering Independence, Routledge, 2018 and (edited, with Cassandra Atherton and Alyson Miller) The Unfinished Atomic Bomb, Rowman and Littlefield, 2018. Carolyn Holbrook is a historian in the Contemporary Histories Research Group at Deakin University and the Director of Australian Policy and History. She is the author of Anzac: The Unauthorised Biography, published by NewSouth in 2014, and co-editor (with Keir Reeves) of The Great War: Aftermath and Commemoration, published by UNSW Press in 2019. Lyndon Megarrity is an author, historian, and tertiary educator based in Townsville. His most recent book is Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia (2018).