Samuel Ruthven Williamson Jr. (born November 10, 1935, in Bogalusa, Louisiana) is an American historian.
[1] He is the author of numerous books including Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War (1991).
In 1988 he became Vice-Chancellor (President) of Sewanee: The University of the South and retired from that position in 2000.
[2] His first book on the subject, The Politics of Grand Strategy: Britain and France Prepare for War, 1904-1914[3] won the George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical Association for best book in international history upon publication in 1969.
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).