Philip Williamson is an historian both of politics in twentieth-century Britain, and aspects of religion and the monarchy in Britain and the British empire since the seventeenth century. His publications on interwar British politics, political culture and government have ranged across the Labour, Liberal and Conservative parties, trade unions and big business, and financial, economic and imperial policies. He also has research work on Christianity and politics in the 1930s, the modern British monarchy and public values, and national acts of public worship since the 1830s. He is principal investigator and chief editor – with Natalie Mears and Stephen Taylor – for the AHRC-funded Durham project on ‘British state prayers, fasts and thanksgivings’ in three volumes, and has a Leverhulme major research fellowship for work on the monarchy and religion in the British Isles since 1689.
He is chief editor of National Prayers: Worship for National and Royal Occasions in the United Kingdom 1871–2016.