Background
Alison Olson was born on October 10, 1931, in Oakland, California, United States. She is the daughter of Luther and Doris (Gilbert) Olson.
The University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
The University of California, Berkeley where Alison Olson studied.
Oxford OX1 2JD, UK
The University of Oxford where Alison Olson received a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
Alison Olson was born on October 10, 1931, in Oakland, California, United States. She is the daughter of Luther and Doris (Gilbert) Olson.
Alison Olson studied at the University of California, Berkeley where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1952 and a Master of Arts degree in 1953. She also attended the University of Oxford where she received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1956.
Alison Olson started her career as an Instructor at Smith College in 1957 and in 1959 she became an assistant professor of history. However, in 1960 she left Smith College and took up a post of an assistant professor of history at Douglass College in 1963. She worked there until 1967 and then became an associate professor of history at Rutgers University. Olson held this post until 1973. The same year, she became a professor of history at the University of Maryland. She has headed the Board of Editors of the William and Mary Quarterly. She has also directed the Honors Program of the Department of History. Now she is Professor Emerita.
Alison Olson published her first book The Radical Duke: Career and Correspondence of Charles Lennox, Third Duke of Richmond in 1961. In 1970 she collaborated with Richard Maxwell Brown in the editing of Anglo-American Political Relations, 1675-1775. Among Olson’s other writings is Making the Empire Work: London and American Interest Groups, 1690-1790.
Quotations: "Like many scholars in the field, I find my interest in Anglo-American history shifting into the broader one of North Atlantic history. More and more we are tending to see the North Atlantic world as creating a very cosmopolitan society in the early modem period"
Alison Olson is a member of the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, Associates, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, McNeil Center of Early American History, Southern Historical Association, Huguenot Society and Pennsylvania Historical Society.
Alison Olson married Mancur Olson on August 29, 1959. The marriage produced three children.