Quint, Howard H.

History, 1959-1981

b. Jan. 3, 1917, New Haven, Conn.

d. June 23, 1981, Amherst, Mass.

The historian Howard H. Quint was born in New Haven, Conn., on January 3, 1917, the son of Louis and Bessie (Clark) Quint. After receiving his bachelors degree from Yale in 1940, he earned an MA from Stanford in 1942 before entering military service as a propaganda analyst for the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service, as political analyst for the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, and as political and economic analyst for the Office of Strategic Services.

Less than two years after returning to civilian life, Quint earned his doctorate from Johns Hopkins in 1947 and embarked upon an academic career at the University of South Carolina, punctuated with visiting appointments at Johns Hopkins (1953), the University of Wisconsin (1958), and as the Smith-Mundt Visiting Professor at the University of Mexico (1956). Both his first book, The Forging of American Socialism (1954), reflected a progressive political outlook that did not sit easily in South Carolina, but his study of segregation, Profiles in Black and White (1958), proved so anathema in the South that it led to his resignation.

After serving as Associate Director of the Inter-University Committee on the Superior Student and Co-director of the Senior Colloquium in 1958 and 1959, both at the University of Colorado, Quint came to the University of Massachusetts as Professor of History where he played a key role in expanding the scope and quality of the department. After spending the 1961-1962 school year as a Fulbright Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, in Bologna, Italy, Quint was selected as Chair of the History Department, a position he retained until 1968. During his tenure as Chair, he oversaw a doubling of the number of undergraduate courses offered, appointed over thirty faculty members, and helped initiate a doctoral program. He also served as Director of the University’s Summer School in Bologna in 1966, 1968, and 1970, and was responsible for establishing the Honors Program at the University of Massachusetts.

Among Quint's many publications were The Talkative President: The Off-the-Record Press Conferences of Calvin Coolidge (1964), Main Problems in American History (1964), and Men, Women, and Issues in American History (1970). Quint continued to write and teach until his death on June 23, 1981.

• View the Finding aid for the Quint Papers (Call no. FS 7)