During this period, he gave innumerable conferences and taught courses at several universities (University of Auburn, Florida, New Mexico, Virginia, Yale, Columbia), at Queen’s College (New York) and at other cultural institutions on a multitude of themes from the fall of Rome, Islamism, Portuguese, peninsular and European medieval features, to issues of contemporaneity related to Portugal and Europe, while continuously marking his presence in scientific meetings in Europe, such as Paris and Leipzig. In response to an invitation by the Columbia University Press, he began writing a História de Portugal [History of Portugal] in English, which was published in 1972. This book had a huge scientific impact, as shall be addressed further ahead. The highly intense and far-reaching labour of Oliveira Marques as teacher is testament to his profound, scholarly and vast background as a historian with an in-depth understanding of the medieval age in diverse spaces, chronologies, and themes and who, in the absence of primary sources of the Middle Ages, focused on features of contemporary history.

In July 1969, personal reasons forced him to leave the United States and until 1976 his course was somewhat erratic. He returned to the United States in 1970 and 1973 to chair courses or give conferences at the Universities of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Chicago, Illinois, and Northern Illinois. Without a stable job in Portugal, he was awarded a scholarship by the Minister for Education, Veiga Simão, who appointed him for a committee in charge of preparing the reform of the Cursos de Letras [Arts Degree]. His work and research began to focus more on contemporary history, particularly the Afonso Costa Archive, and he began to publish the História da I República Portuguesa [History of the First Portuguese Republic] in 1973, as editor. Upon  establishment  of democracy in Portugal, Oliveira Marques returned to the Faculdade de Letras in October, but the climate of political agitation forced him to resign; a month later he was appointed Director of the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa [Lisbon National Library], where he remained in office from February to December 1975 but where, unfortunately, he was unable to accomplish the reforms he had planned in view of the troubled labour environment at the time, despite having granted immediate direct access to the General Catalogue of the Library to all its readers and organised several exhibitions as part of the Biblioteca’s cultural animation. Oliveira Marques continued to give conferences on themes that were dear to him as a citizen; Iberism and Freemasonry. By taking part in a company-linked project, sponsored by the Companhia de Seguros Império [Império Insurance Company], he published Para a História dos Seguros em Portugal [Towards a History of Insurance in Portugal] (1977), another of his pioneering themes.

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