Harold James Perkin (11 November 1926 – 16 October 2004) was a distinguished English social historian who was the founder of the ''

Social History Society ''Cultural and Social History'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering cultural and social history published by Routledge five times a year on behalf of the Social History Society. It was established in 2004. Abstracting and indexing The jo ...

'' 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 PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

. He began extramural history teaching from 1950 with the University of Manchester.

Academic career

Perkin was a

Lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

Social History Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

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

(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, founded the

and was Chairman (1976–1991), and served as chief salary negotiator for the Association of University Teachers, of which he was later President. Perkin was a distinguished, pioneering social historian, whose interests incluced Transport.

Publications

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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.

References

External links

Harold Perkin
Entry at 'Making History' website, Institute of Historical Research, University of London. Accessed December 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Perkin, Harold Social historians Rice University staff Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester Academics of Lancaster University People from Hanley, Staffordshire Northwestern University faculty 1926 births 2004 deaths Place of death missing 20th-century British historians People educated at Hanley High School 21st-century British historians 20th-century British male writers 21st-century British male writers 20th-century Royal Air Force personnel