Harold Perkin

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

Perkin was born in Hanley, Staffordshire to humble origins and attended Hanley High School and then obtained a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge from 1945, gaining a starred First Class degree in 1948 followed by National Service in the RAF. Rejected by his Cambridge college to study for a PhD, he commenced an extramural history teaching post from 1950 at Manchester University. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Academic career

Lecturer in Social History, Manchester University 1951-65; Senior Lecturer in Social History, Lancaster University 1965-67, Professor 1967-84, Director, Centre for Social History 1974-84; Professor of History, Northwestern University, Illinois 1985-97 (Emeritus);

He had a visiting professorship at Rice University, founded and chaired the Social History Society, and served as chief salary negotiator for the Association of University Teachers and was later its president. As a distinguished social historian Perkin secured an academic stature as lasting as that of Asa Briggs and Eric Hobsbawm.

Publications

• New Universities in the United Kingdom, Case Studies on Innovation in Higher Education, Paris: OECD, 1969^[5]
• Key Profession: History of the Association of University Teachers, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969 ISBN 0-7100-6501-9
• The Origins of Modern English Society 1780-1880, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969 ISBN 0-7100-4567-0
• The Age of the Railway, UK: Panther Books, (1970)
• History (Outline), Law Book Co of Australasia, (1970) ISBN 0-7100-6814-X
• Age of the Automobile, UK: Quartet Books, (1976) ISBN 0-7043-2112-2
• The Structured Crowd: Essays in English social history, UK: Harvester Books, (1981) ISBN 0-85527-413-1
• The Rise of Professional Society, England Since 1880, London; New York: Routledge, 1989 ISBN 0-415-30178-5
• The Third Revolution: Professional Elites in the Modern World, London: Routledge, 1996 ISBN 0-415-14337-3
• The Making of a Social Historian, (autobiography) UK: Athena Press, 2002 ISBN 1-84401-014-7

Television

Television shows for Granada TV

• The Age of the Railway (1970)
• The Age of the Automobile (1976)

Both later issued in book form.

References

External links

• Harold Perkin Entry at 'Making History' website, Institute of Historical Research, University of London. Accessed December 2011