Paul Smith (born 1937) is a British historian of Victorian England. In 1972 Smith edited a collection of Lord Salisbury's articles that he had written for the Quarterly Review. Vernon Bogdanor said that Smith's lengthy introduction explaining Salisbury's politics was "extremely perceptive ... This is the best thing that has been written on Salisbury since Lady Gwendolen Cecil's unfinished biography". University of Illinois historian called Smith's introduction "a gem, judicious, well-reasoned, persuasive, [and] brilliant".