Dr Philip Salmon
Editor, House of Commons, 1832-1868
Current Research/Role
I am the Editor of the 1832-1868 House of Commons section, having joined the History of Parliament in 1998 after completing a DPhil at Exeter College, University of Oxford. For the next 11 years I worked on the award-winning 1820-32 House of Commons volumes. I became editor of the 1832-1945 House of Commons project in 2009 and from 2017-21 was a Research Associate at Keble College, Oxford. I am currently a Fellow (Visiting) at Kellogg College, University of Oxford and since 2022 have been deputy director of the History of Parliament Trust.
Research Interests
Outside of the History, my research interests include the development of democratic institutions (national, local and colonial) in Britain, Ireland and Australia, from around 1800 to 1914. including their practical workings and impact on the emergence of distinctive political identities. I am also interested in the elections and the role of the MP in Victorian politics, the cult of the public figure and the changing practices and functions of popular representation. Outside of Victorian political history, I am also interested in the digital humanities, particularly the potential applications of the internet, digital sources, data analysis and computer-based psephology to political history.
Publications
Books
Electoral reform at work: local politics and national parties, 1832-1841, (London: Boydell, 2002 & 2011).
Partisan politics, principle and reform in parliament and the constituencies, 1689-1880, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005) [co-edited with C. Jones and R. W. Davies].
Chapters in Books
‘Political Leadership 1800-1900’, in 300 Years of Political Leadership and Innovation (London: St. James’s House, 2021), pp. 77-115.
‘Parliament’, in D. S. Brown, R. Crowcroft and G. Pentland (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Modern British Political History, 1800-2000 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. 83-102.
‘“Plumping contests”: the impact of by-elections on English voting behaviour, 1790-1868?, in T. Otte and P. Readman (eds.), By-elections in British Politics, 1832-1914 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2013), pp. 23-49.
‘The parliamentary representation of Oxfordshire’, in K. Tiller and G. Darkes (eds.), An Historical Atlas of Oxfordshire (Oxfordshire Record Society, 2010), pp. 126-8.
‘The English reform legislation, 1831-32’, in D. Fisher (ed.), The House of Commons, 1820-32(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), i. pp. 374-412.
‘The House of Commons, 1801-1911’, in C. Jones (ed.), A Short History of Parliament, ed. C. Jones (Boydell & Brewer, 2009), pp. 248-69.
‘John A. Phillips as a historian’, in C. Jones, P. Salmon and R. Davis (eds.), Partisan politics, principle and reform in parliament and the constituencies, 1689-1880 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), , pp. xxii-xxx.
‘“Reform should begin at home”: English municipal and parliamentary reform, 1818-32’ in C. Jones, P. Salmon and R. Davis (eds.), Partisan politics, principle and reform in parliament and the constituencies, 1689-1880 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), pp. 93-113.‘England’s “other” ballot question: the unnoticed political revolution of 1835’, in C. Jones, P. Salmon and R. Davis (eds.), Partisan politics, principle and reform in parliament and the constituencies, 1689-1880 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), pp. 139-163 [edited].
Journal Articles
‘Prorogation Gallery: historical examples of Parliament being suspended’, Times Literary Supplement (6 September 2019).
‘Who should have the vote? What electoral rights did Britons have in the century before 1918’, History Today 68:8 (2018), pp. 24-35 [with K. Rix].
‘The 1818 election: more change than meets the eye’, Conservative History Journal 2:6 (2018), pp. 18-20.
‘Nineteenth-century electoral reform’, Modern History Review 18 (2015), pp. 8-12.
‘An emancipation election, Louth 1826’, History Today 55 (2005), p. 59.
‘Joseph Parkes’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 42 (2004), pp. 777-80.
‘Electoral reform and the political modernization of England’, Parliaments, Estates, and Representation 23:1 (2003), pp. 49-67. ‘Local politics and partisanship: the electoral impact of municipal reform, 1835’, Parliamentary History 19:3 (2000), pp. 357-76.
Select Media
BBC 1, historian, ‘Who do you think you are? Jack and Michael Whitehall’
BBC Parliament, presenter, ‘Prime Properties: Lord Derby’,
BBC Parliament, presenter, ‘Prime Properties: Sir Robert Peel’,
BBC Parliament, historian, ‘Dickens in Parliament’ [with Caroline Quinn].
BBC Parliament, historian, ‘Bombed but not broken’,
BBC Parliament, historian, ‘The Great Fire: burning down the House’,
Radio 4, interviewee, ‘Votes for Victorian Women’.Click here for other talks and recent blogs
Specialisms: nineteenth century British political history, electoral reform, Victorian politics, digital humanities.