Another Green Revolution? On the Perils of ‘Extracting Lessons’ from History

Virtually all areas of policy are commonly justified by reference to history. This article examines claims in literature which discusses the feasibility of ‘another Green Revolution’ and shows that almost all of the ‘history’ it deploys is poorly constructed. Moreover, since the authors in question arrive at a wide range of conflicting policy recommendations, the literature is of little use to policymakers. It concludes, however, not that history is useless for policy, but that if carefully done, it can indeed provide valuable orientation.