He began teaching at Georgetown University, and became one of the first American academics to specialize in the study of the emerging communist government of China.
This was soon interrupted by the American entrance into World War II; he entered service at Fort Devens in June 1943, and served in the Pacific Theater.
His dissertation, The Grain Tribute System of China, 1845-1911, was written under the direction of John King Fairbank and later published by the university as a monograph in 1956.
He served as a visiting professor at Cambridge in 1952–1953, where he conducted post-graduate research on a Fulbright Scholarship, and additionally lectured at Oxford.
[6] Hinton taught at Columbia University from 1960 to 1962, before returning to Washington to teach at Trinity College and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
In 1964, he joined the nascent Institute of Sino-Soviet Studies at George Washington University as an associate professor of political science and international affairs; he was promoted to a full professorship in 1967.