The English economic historian Sir John Harold Clapham (1873-1946) established economic history as a significant and independent field of study in Great Britain.

John Harold Clapham was the son of a Wesleyan Jeweler in Salford, Lancashire. He attended King's College, Cambridge, on a scholarship, graduating with first-class honors in history in 1895. He received the Lightfoot scholarship in ecclesiastical history the following year and the Prince Consort Prize in 1897 and then was made a fellow of King's. He was influenced most in these early years by the economist Alfred Marshall.

In 1902 Clapham went to the University of Leeds as a professor of economics and a pioneer in economic history. He returned to Cambridge in 1908 as dean of King's and was deeply involved in university affairs until his death. In 1928 the Cambridge chair in economic history was established for him, and he held it for a decade.

Clapham was a...