There is a tendency in a good economic climate for research to focus on the sources of economic growth. Reactions to what is commonly called the credit crunch are worth having a look at. At first, analysts believed this crisis would be short-lived and that some adjustments would correct external turbulences. Then, the idea emerged that the exogenous factors were in fact revealing internal dysfunctions at the heart of the economic system. In other words, most economies are facing a systemic crisis and the mechanisms which drove the growth could be the same as those which had provoked the crisis. In this article, the author revisits and reflects on the historical relationship between education and economic prosperity as well as economic downturn. The author focuses on the Kondratiev cycle (or long wave) named after the Russian economist Nikolai Kondratiev (1892-1938). In the 1920s, Kondratiev analysed historical economic and financial statistics in major industrialized countries and identified a succession of 20- to 25-year-long phases of prosperity and depression. The purpose of this article is to discuss the potential contribution of history to a better understanding of the current economic crisis and its impact on education within the British and French contexts.