Orlando Patterson (born in the 1940s) is an American historical and cultural sociologist known for his work regarding issues of race in the United States, as well as the sociology of development. His book Freedom, Volume One, or Freedom in the Making of Western Culture (1991), won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction. He went on to earn a BSc in Economics from the University of the West Indies, Mona, in 1962, and his Ph.D. in Sociology at the London School of Economics in 1965. Patterson has appeared on PBS and has been a guest columnist in The New York Times. Patterson currently holds the John Cowles chair in Sociology at Harvard University.