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.