Perkinson attended Jackson Hole High School in Jackson, Wyoming and graduated with honors in 1987. He attended Yale University and earned his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in American Studies, where he also co-founded the Student Legal Action Movement.
He is the author of Texas Tough: The Rise of a Prison Empire (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt, 2010). Education and Academic Between 1985-1986, he participated in International Student Exchange at the Colegio Concepcion in Concepcion, Chile. At the University of Colorado at Boulder, Perkinson received his Bachelor of Arts with honors in History, with a minor in Ethnic Studies in 1994.
His dissertation is titled The Birth of the Texas Prison Empire, 1865-1915.
He also served as a political columnist for the Boulder Weekly and editorial assistant for Critical Asian Studies in Boulder, Colorado. Perkinson joined the American Studies department at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 2001.
He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in areas such as crime and punishment, Southern and Western history, race and class, and American empire. He is currently directing the State of Hawai‘i"s and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s efforts to host the Obama Presidential Center in Honolulu.
His book Texas Tough was awarded the Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for nonfiction in 2011. November 11, 2011 was officially declared "Robert Perkinson day" in the state of Hawai"i by governor Neil Abercrombie and lieutenant governor Brian Schatz.
His book, Texas Tough, addresses the history of American punishment, race, economy, and politics in the United States, with an emphasis on Texas—the most locked down state in the United States. The book has been reviewed in many publications including The New York Times, The New Republic, Columbia Journalism Review, and Boston Globe.
