Philip Maynard Williams, FBA (17 March 1920 – 16 November 1984) was a British political analyst.'Dr Philip Williams', ''The Times'' (20 November 1984), p. 12. He was educated at the

Stationers' Company's School The Stationers' Company's School was a former boys' grammar school, then a comprehensive school in Hornsey, north London. History The school started as the Stationers' Company's Foundation School. The Master from 1858 to 1882 was Alexander Kenne ...

Hornsey Hornsey is a district of north London, England in the London Borough of Haringey The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner Lo ...

and at Trinity College, Oxford, where he was awarded a first in modern history in 1940. In 1946 he was appointed a lecturer at Trinity and became a Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford in 1950. From 1953 until 1958 he was a Fellow and Tutor at

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship St ...

, after which he was reappointed Fellow of Nuffield. He was also Dean of Nuffield from 1968 until 1972. His first book, ''Politics in Post-War France'' (1954), was described as "magisterial" by ''The Times'' and "unsurpassed" by Stanley Hoffmann.Stanley Hoffmann, 'In Memoriam – Philip Williams', ''French Politics and Society'' No. 8 (December 1984), p. 29. Williams' thesis was that "the difficulties of French government" were attributable "to historical and social, rather than to constitutional or temperamental factors". In 1964 he published a rewritten edition (''Crisis and Compromise''), writing in the new preface: "I seriously over-estimated the stability of a regime which had yet to face a political and emotional challenge as grave as the

Irish question The Irish question was the issue debated primarily among the British government from the early 19th century until the 1920s of how to respond to Irish nationalism and the calls for Irish independence. The phrase came to prominence as a result ...

in Britain or the problems of the South in the United States". In the early 1960s Williams was an active member of the

Gaitskellite Gaitskellism was the ideology of a faction in the British Labour Party in the 1950s and early 1960s which opposed many of the economic policies of the trade unions, especially nationalisation and control of the economy. Theoretically, it repudia ...

Campaign for Democratic Socialism. On 10 October 1960 Williams issued a statement (with

Julius Gould Samuel Julius Gould (13 October 1924 – 4 December 2019) was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham. After studying at Balliol College, Oxford, where he gained an MA in PPE, he worked at Bletchley Park as a codebreaker ...

) in support of the Labour Party leader

Hugh Gaitskell Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell (9 April 1906 – 18 January 1963) was a British politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1955 until his death in 1963. An economics lecturer and wartime civil servant, h ...

We, the undersigned Labour Party members and supporters, wholeheartedly support the position taken by Mr. Gaitskell in the Labour Party conference debate on defence and his opposition to a policy of unilateral disarmament or neutralism for Britain. We urge the Parliamentary Labour Party to support their leader in the stand which he has taken.'University Support for Mr. Gaitskell', ''The Times'' (11 October 1960), p. 17.

The 62 signatories to the statement included

Janet Vaughan Dame Janet Maria Vaughan, Mrs Gourlay (18 October 1899 – 9 January 1993), was a British physiologist, academic, and academic administrator.Evelyn IronsObituary: Dame Janet Vaughan ''The Independent'', 12 January 1993. She researched in haem ...

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, J. A. G. Griffith, H. L. A. Hart,

Stuart Hampshire Sir Stuart Newton Hampshire (1 October 1914 – 13 June 2004) was an English philosopher, literary critic and university administrator. He was one of the antirationalist Oxford thinkers who gave a new direction to moral and political thought ...

and

William A. Robson William Alexander Robson (14 July 1895 – 12 May 1980) was a British academic who was an early and influential scholar of public administration while serving as a lecturer and professor at the London School of Economics. Upon his death, ''The ...

Roy Jenkins Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead, (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lab ...

had originally planned to write Gaitskell's official biography but in 1968 he had to abandon it due to his commitments as a government minister. Gaitskell's literary executors (Jenkins and Anthony Crosland), with the agreement of Gaitskell's widow, then asked Williams to write it. Williams' biography of Gaitskell eventually appeared in 1979 and, according to ''The Times'', "it was acknowledged as a masterly political biography". F. M. Leventhal claimed that it "will long remain the definitive assessment of Labour politics between 1951 and 1963". Henry Pelling claimed that it was "the fullest account ever published of the Bevanite split in 1951, of the struggle for unilateral nuclear disarmament, and of Labour's initial reactions to the proposal to enter the European Common Market". In 1981 he signed the

Limehouse Declaration The Limehouse Declaration was a statement issued on 25 January 1981 by four senior British Labour politicians, all MPs or former MPs and Cabinet Ministers: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams. It became known as the Limeho ...

and joined the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

. Williams was elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

in 1983."Philip Maynard Williams"
'' Proceedings of the British Academy'', vol. 72 (1987), p. 551.

Works

*''Politics in Post-War France: Parties and the Constitution in the Fourth Republic'' (London: Longmans, 1954; 2nd edn. 1961). *''De Gaulle's Republic'' (London: Longmans, 1962). *''Crisis and Compromise: Politics in the Fourth Republic'' (New York: Archon Books, 1964). *''The French Parliament: Politics in the Fifth Republic'' (New York: F. A. Praeger, 1968). *''Hugh Gaitskell'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 1979).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Philip Maynard 1920 births 1984 deaths British biographers Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford People educated at the Stationers' Company's School Fellows of the British Academy