from the Royal Society Newsletter

The Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Prize Lecture
The Social Function of History: Policy, History and Twentieth-Century Science

Monday 20th April 2009 at 6.30pm
Speaker: Professor David Edgerton, Imperial College London

Discussion of science has been characteristically futuristic, focussed on promises or threats of the shape of the things to come. Scientists had, according to C.P. Snow, the future in their bones’. Yet stories about science’s past have also been very important too. In thinking about future British science policy, very particular accounts of history have been surprisingly important. It is claimed that policies of the past have failed, that lessons from history need to be learned. We need to ensure that better, richer, histories are available to those concerned with policy.

There is a new history of recent British science which is radically different from that generated through reading of past policy debates and the grotesque misrepresentations perpetrated by C.P. Snow and others. Its policy implications are quite different too.

Historians bring to thinking about science policy a very particular understanding which should be central to policy: historians are trained to know in their bones that the future is unknown and to understand the power of the cheap futurism which characterises the present.

This lecture is free – no ticket or advanced booking required. Doors open at 4.45pm and seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

This lecture will be webcast LIVE at royalsociety.org/live and available to view on demand within 48 hours of delivery.