Staff Profile

Professor Philip Williamson

(email at p.a.williamson@durham.ac.uk)

As a historian of twentieth-century British politics, political culture and government, Philip Williamson’s publications have ranged across the Labour, Liberal and Conservative parties, trade unions and big business, and financial, economic and imperial policies. Recent research and teaching specialisms include inter-war Conservatism, political leadership and popular politics in the 1940s and early 1950s, the modern monarchy and public values, and national acts of public worship since the 1830s. He is principal investigator - with Natalie Mears (Durham) and Stephen Taylor (Durham) - for the AHRC-funded project on ‘British state prayers, fasts and thanksgivings, 1540s-1940s’. Durham’s libraries give access to unusually rich historical sources for British politics, religion and public life, and its group of British historians offer wide opportunities for postgraduate study.

Research Project

Research Interests

• British politics and government 1900-1960
• The British state, religion and public values since 1830
• The modern British monarchy
• The City of London and government since 1850

Publications

Books: authored

• 1999 Stanley Baldwin. Conservative Leadership and National Values, Cambridge University Press, 378 pp.
• 1992 National Crisis and National Government. British Politics, the Economy and Empire 1926-1932, Cambridge University Press, 569 pp.

Edited essays

• 2004 (co-edited with Ranald Michie) The British Government and the City of London in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge University Press, 381 pp.

Edited sources

• 2004 (co-edited with Edward Baldwin) Baldwin Papers. A Conservative Statesman 1908-1947, Cambridge University Press, 526 pp.
• 1988 The Modernisation of Conservative Politics. The Diaries and Letters of William Bridgeman 1904-1935, The Historians' Press, 270 pp.

Essays in edited volumes

• 2010 'Maurice Cowling and modern British political history', in Robert Crowcroft, S.J.D. Green & Richard Whiting (eds.), Philosophy, Politics and Religion in British Democracy: Maurice Cowling and Conservatism, I.B. Tauris, pp. 108-152
• 2010 'The Conservative party, fascism and anti-fascism 1918-1939', in Nigel Copsey & Andzrej Olechnowicz (eds.), Varieties of Anti-fascism. Britain in the Inter-war Period, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 73-97
• 2007 'The monarchy and public values, 1910–1953', in Andrzej Olechnowicz (ed.), The Monarchy and the British Nation, 1780 to the Present, Cambridge University Press, pp. 223-257
• 2004 'The City of London and government in modern Britain: debates and politics', in Ranald Michie & Philip Williamson (eds.), The British Government and the City of London in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge University Press, pp. 5-30
• 2002 'The Conservative party 1900-1939: from crisis to ascendancy', in Chris Wrigley (ed.), A Companion to Early Twentieth-Century Britain, Historical Association and Blackwell, pp. 3-22
• 1993 'The doctrinal politics of Stanley Baldwin: essays in British history presented to Maurice Cowling', in Michael Bentley (ed.), Public and Private Doctrine, Cambridge University Press, pp. 181-208
• 1984 'Financiers, the gold standard, and British politics 1925-1931', in John Turner (ed.), Businessmen and Politics: Studies of Business Activity in British Politics, 1900-1945, Heinemann, pp. 105-129

Journal papers: academic

• 2013 'National days of prayer: the churches, the state and public worship in Britain 1899-1957', English Historical Review 128, pp. 324-366
• 2008 'State prayers, fasts and thanksgivings: public worship in Britain 1830–1897', Past and Present 200, pp. 121-174
• 2004 'Baldwin's reputation: politics and history, 1937-1967', Historical Journal 47, pp. 127-168
• 2000 'Christian Conservatives and the totalitarian challenge 1933-40', English Historical Review 115, pp. 607-642
• 1991 '1931 revisited. The political realities', Twentieth Century British History 2, pp. 328-338
• 1991 'The Labour party and the House of Lords 1918-1931', Parliamentary History 10, pp. 317-341
• 1984 'A ''bankers' ramp''? Financiers and the British political crisis of August 1931', English Historical Review 99, pp. 771-806
• 1983 ''Party first and India second': the appointment of the Viceroy of India in 1930', Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 56, pp. 86-101
• 1982 ''Safety First': Baldwin, the Conservative party, and the 1929 general election', Historical Journal 25, pp. 385-409

Teaching Areas

• British politics and policy from 1880 to 1960
• Historical thought 1700-1800