Samuel R. Williamson Jr.
{{short description|American historian (born 1935)}}
{{infobox person
|name=Samuel R. Williamson Jr.
|birth_name=Samuel Ruthven Williamson Jr.
|birth_date={{birth date and age|1935|11|10}}
|birth_place=Bogalusa, Louisiana, U.S.
|education=Tulane University (BA)
Harvard University (PhD)
|occupation=Historian
|awards=George Louis Beer Prize (1970)
}}
Samuel Ruthven Williamson Jr. (born November 10, 1935, in Bogalusa, Louisiana) is an American historian. He was President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of the South (Sewanee),."About Sewanee," [http://www.sewanee.edu/about/vc/previous-vice-chancellors/ "Previous Vice-Chancellors" ] Accessed Dec 18, 2015 He is the author of numerous books including Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War (1991).
Life and career
He received a B.A. from Tulane University and both a M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He taught history as an army officer at West Point from 1963 to 1966, at Harvard University from 1966 to 1972 where he was Senior Tutor of Kirkland House and assistant to the Dean of the College and at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill from 1972 to 1988, where he served as Dean of the College and provost of the university. In 1988 he became Vice-Chancellor (President) of Sewanee: The University of the South and retired from that position in 2000. He then taught history at Sewanee until December 2005.
He is a specialist in modern history, particularly the origins of World War I.See John W. Langdon, "Emerging from Fischer's Shadow: recent examinations of the crisis of July 1914." History Teacher 20.1 (1986): 63-86. His first book on the subject, The Politics of Grand Strategy: Britain and France Prepare for War, 1904-1914[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48659 WorldCat book record] won the George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical Association for best book in international history upon publication in 1969.{{cite web |url=http://www.historians.org/awards-and-grants/past-recipients/george-louis-beer-prize-recipients |title=George Louis Beer Prize Recipients |publisher=American Historical Association |author= |date= |accessdate=December 24, 2017}} He went on to write four more books on World War I:The Origins of a Tragedy: July 1919 (1979), Essays on World War I (1983), Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War (1991), and July 1914: Soldiers, Statesmen and the Coming of the Great War with Russell Van Wyk (2003). He is also the author of The Origins of U.S. Nuclear Strategy, 1945-1953 with Steve Rearden (1993).
In 2003, he became the director of the Sewanee History Project for which he wrote Sewanee Sesquicentennial History: The Making of the University of the South (2008) and The Sesquicentennial of the Laying of the Cornerstone of the University of the South October 10, 1860 (2010). He also edited five more books published by the Sewanee History Project: Ecce Quam Bonum (2007), Sewanee Perspectives on the History of the University of the South (2009), The Liberal Arts at Sewanee (2009), Sewanee Places: A Historical Gazetteer of the Domain of the University of the South (2010) and Yea Sewanee's Right! A Pictorial History of the University of the South (2011).[http://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/lccn-n82041189 WorldCat author record]
He is married to Joan Andress and the father of three children: George Samuel Williamson, Treeby Williamson Brown and Thaddeus M. Williamson.
References
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Category:21st-century American historians
Category:21st-century American male writers
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:Tulane University alumni
Category:Heads of universities and colleges in the United States