Frank Gavin, “Five Ways to Use History Well”

History-savvy Policy

Why do policy makers and historians shun each other? Gavin observed that policy people want actionable information, certainty, and simple explanations. Meanwhile historians revel in nuance, distrust simple explanations and also distrust power and those who seek it. Thus historians keep themselves irrelevant, and policy makers keep their process ignorant.

Gavin proposed five key concepts from history that can inform understanding and improve policy dramatically…

Read the rest of Stewart Brand’s Summary

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 02010 at 11:50 am and is filed under Long Now Announcements, Seminars.