Whatever shape the National Curriculum of the 21st century takes, history will have to show its relevance to major curricular areas and themes such as literacy, citizenship education and thinking skills. This ought to be easy: the critical, informed decision-making required by the modern citizen is practised in virtually every history lesson. But to some audiences (governors, parents, senior managers, policy makers) we need to be much more systematic in showing how history maps onto or underpins these other objectives. It is by no means obvious to others that history involves problem-solving and the critical weighing of evidence. Jon Nichol uses the work of the Nuffield Primary History Project (which owes so much to the inspirational work of the late John Fines) to analyse the relationship between history and common approaches to the teaching of ‘Thinking Skills'. As well as sharpening up the curriculum theorising of those history teachers who need to justify history's place in the curriculum, this article will acquaint secondary teachers with the work of Nuffield Primary History, furnishing history departments with more ideas for rigorous primary-secondary liaison in history.