California Dreams - by Miriam Pawel Hardcover

About the Book

Pulitzer Prize-winner Miriam Pawel's epic history of the world's largest higher educational institution, the University of California, its sweeping social impact, and what it can teach us in a time of crisis.

Book Synopsis

Pulitzer Prize-winner Miriam Pawel's epic history of the world's largest higher educational institution, the University of California, its sweeping social impact, and what it can teach us in a time of crisis.

Set apart by its founding mission to be an engine of upward mobility, the University of California system-constitutionally independent, a public trust-is a great American experiment that has endured through fraught battles over access, funding, and leadership and the looming crisis in education.

The University has been at the nexus of nearly every public policy decision and social movement in the Golden State since the Civil War, from affirmative action to immigration to student protests. Fiat Lux narrates the UC's rise and resilience through the lens of those whose lives it has transformed-in particular, five pioneering graduates whose diverse paths underscore why, though imperfectly so, the UC remains, in the words of Berkeley graduate Joan Didion, "California's best idea of itself."

At a time of staggering inequality and uncertainty, as higher education faces unprecedented threats, that role has never been more crucial-or more difficult. Fiat Lux weaves the history of the inexorably linked school and state in all its drama, significance, and humanity, providing a clear-eyed analysis of the University's roots with an incisive lesson, and a glimmer of hope, for our future.

Review Quotes

"[A] wonderful and essential book." --Los Angeles Times on THE BROWNS OF CALIFORNIA

"Ms. Pawel . . . with her extensive interviews, deep archival research and brilliant synthesis, has made an enormous contribution to the historical record." --Wall Street Journal on THE BROWNS OF CALIFORNIA

"[R]igorous and captivating . . . Chavez's epic story, told so astutely and passionately by Pawel, is essential for understanding today's struggles for justice and equality." --Booklist starred review on THE CRUSADES OF CESAR CHAVEZ

"A provocative glimpse into recent history, Pawel's exposé offers deep insight into the nature of mass movements." --Los Angeles Times on THE UNION OF THEIR DREAMS

About the Author

Miriam Pawel is the author of The Browns of California, winner of the California Book Award Gold Medal; The Crusades of Cesar Chavez, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist; and The Union of Their Dreams. A Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and reporter, she spent twenty-five years at Newsday and the Los Angeles Times. For this book, she was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Fellowship and was named a fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. She lives in Southern California.