This course delves deeply into the opportunities, challenges, barriers, and trajectories of integrating historical thinking and reasoning in policymaking. Students will be encouraged to leverage historical knowledge and evidence to develop innovative approaches to examining current and future policies. Through a comprehensive exploration of theoretical frameworks and historical case studies from Hong Kong and around the globe, students will be trained to scrutinise issues surrounding the “usability” of history, including the use, misuse, and abuse of historical narratives, as well as critical concepts such as causality, contingency, and analogies. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to formulate policy opinions on contemporary issues, grounded in historical context and with clear policy relevance. Inspired by the historian Marc Bloch’s concept of “historical sensibility,” this course aims to instil in students a profound appreciation for how historical perspectives can inform and enhance public policy. Ultimately, this course prepares students to become adept at using history responsibly to shape effective and informed policies for the future, fostering a deeper understanding of the dynamic relationship between the past and present in the realm of public policy.