Harold C. Hinton Papers, 1960-1992

Harold C. Hinton was born in 1924 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, just outside Paris, France. In 1932 his father was reassigned to the main office of the New York Times in New York, then a few years later to Washington, DC. Harold attended St. Albans School, and prep school at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and matriculated at Harvard in September, 1941. In June 1943, he went on active duty at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts, and shortly afterward was shipped to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, to continue artillery training. At this time, the Army put him on a waiting list for officer candidate school at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, and shipped him back to Harvard to continue with his courses. His contingent was returned to Ft. Sill just before exams, so the exams were administered at Ft. Sill with an Army proctor where the young Hinton graduated in absentia in 1946. He returned to Harvard to receive is Ph.D. in 1951. His doctoral dissertation, "The Grain Tribute System of China, 1845-1911: An Aspect of the Decline of the Ching Dynasty" was published by Harvard University in 1956. Dr. Hinton was Assistant Professor of History at Georgetown University from 1950-1957; Training Officer for the Foreign Service Institute, Department of State from 1957-1960; Associate Professor of History, Trinity College from 1960-1964. Then Associate Professor Political Science and International Affairs from 1964-1967, and from 1967-1992 he was Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University. He retired as Professor Emeritus from that university in June of 1992. After his retirement, he and his wife, Carolyn, moved to Estes Park, Colorado. He was not only an early leader and founder of the post-war expansion of American China studies but a consistent and tireless contributor of ideas and analyses of Chinese politics, Chinese foreign policy, and China's relations with America and its East Asian neighbors. Harold Hinton passed away on September 24, 1993 in Estes Park just short of his 69th birthday.