She is an expert on early modern, western European comparative socio-cultural history with special emphasis on gender, poverty, social relations, religion and work.
From there she went to University College London (UCL), where she encountered Alfred Cobban, the great revisionist historian of the French Revolution.
After four years in America, she returned to Europe in 1991 to become Professor of History and Civilisation at the European University Institute in Florence.
[3] In 2006, she was presented with a Festschrift (edited by Ruth Harris and Lyndal Roper, and published by Oxford University Press) entitled The Art of Survival: Gender and History in Europe, 1450–2000.
Olwen Hufton married Brian Dermot Taunton Murphy (born 27 June 1934) on 3 July 1965; the couple has two daughters.