After the war, he served as Randolph W. Townsend Professor at Yale until 1959, when he was awarded the title of [[Sterling Professor]] of History at Yale University; here he continued to teach and write until his death in 1969.<ref name="Pflanze" />
In 1967, Holborn became the firstsecond president of the [[American Historical Association]] not born in the United States (after Mikhail Rostovtzeff).<ref>{{cite book |last=Wegener |first=Jens |chapter="An Organisation, European in Character"—European Agency and American Control at the Centre Européen, 1925–1940 |page=60 |title=American Foundations and the Coproduction of World Order in the Twentieth Century |editor1-last=Kriege |editor1-first=John |editor2-last=Rausch |editor2-first=Helke |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |year=2012}}</ref> Several specialists of German and European history in America, including [[Peter Gay]], were students of Holborn.
