Harold James Perkin (11 November 1926 – 16 October 2004) was a distinguished English social historian who was the founder of the Social History Society in 1976.

Background

Perkin was born in Hanley, Staffordshire, of humble origins. He attended Hanley High School and won a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge, from 1945, gaining a starred First Class degree in 1948. After National Service in the RAF, he was rejected by his Cambridge college to study for a PhD. He began extramural history teaching from 1950 with the University of Manchester.^[1][2][3][4]

Academic career

Perkin was a lecturer in social history at the University of Manchester (1951–1965), then a Senior Lecturer (1965–1967), a Professor (1967–1984) in social history and Director of the centre for social history (1974–84) at the University of Lancaster, and an Emeritus Professor of History at Northwestern University, Illinois (1985–1997). In addition, he held a visiting professorship at Rice University and founded the Social History Society. Perkin was Chairman (1976–1991), and served as chief salary negotiator for the Association of University Teachers, of which he was later President. He was a distinguished, pioneering social historian, whose interests included transport.^[5]

Publications

• Perkin, H.J. (1969), New Universities in the United Kingdom, Case Studies on Innovation in Higher Education, Paris: OECD^[6]
• Perkin, H.J. (1969), Key Profession: History of the Association of University Teachers, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 0-7100-6501-9
• Perkin, H.J. (1969), The Origins of Modern English Society 1780–1880, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 0-7100-4567-0
• Perkin, H.J. (1970), The Age of the Railway, Panther Books, ISBN 978-0877493518
• Perkin, H.J. (1970), History (Outline), Law Book Co of Australasia, ISBN 0-7100-6814-X
• Perkin, H.J. (1976), Age of the Automobile, Quartet Books, ISBN 0-7043-2112-2
• Perkin, H.J. (1981), The Structured Crowd: Essays in English Social History, Harvester Books, ISBN 0-85527-413-1
• Perkin, H.J. (1989), The Rise of Professional Society, England Since 1880, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-30178-5
• Perkin, H.J. (1996), The Third Revolution: Professional Elites in the Modern World, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-14337-3
• Perkin, H.J. (2002), The Making of a Social Historian (autobiography), Athena Press, ISBN 978-1844010141

Television

Television shows for Granada TV

• The Age of the Railway, 1970
• The Age of the Automobile, 1976

Both were later issued in book form.