California Dreams
- Author Miriam Pawel
- Narrator Christina Delaine
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date 29 September 2026
- Run Time 14 hours
- Format Audio
- Genre Education, Social and cultural history.
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What to expect
"Essential reading."— KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR
"A must read."—KAI BIRD
"In a time of terminal cynicism, Pawel gives us hope."—JERRY BROWN
Pulitzer Prize winner Miriam Pawel’s epic history of one of the world’s elite public universities, its sweeping social impact, and hopeful lessons about endurance in troubled times.
Distinguished by its founding mission as an engine of upward mobility, the University of California—a constitutionally independent public trust—is a great American experiment that has persevered through fraught battles over access, funding, and leadership.
The University has been at the nexus of nearly every public policy debate and social movement since the Civil War, from women’s rights to student protests, from academic freedom to affirmative action, shaping policies that reverberate throughout the United States.
California Dreams narrates 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 the University 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. Drawing on extensive research in ten archives and dozens of interviews, California Dreams weaves together the linked history of the school and state in all its drama, significance, and humanity; the result is a magisterial narrative of both a remarkable public institution of higher education, and also California itself.
"A must read."—KAI BIRD
"In a time of terminal cynicism, Pawel gives us hope."—JERRY BROWN
Pulitzer Prize winner Miriam Pawel’s epic history of one of the world’s elite public universities, its sweeping social impact, and hopeful lessons about endurance in troubled times.
Distinguished by its founding mission as an engine of upward mobility, the University of California—a constitutionally independent public trust—is a great American experiment that has persevered through fraught battles over access, funding, and leadership.
The University has been at the nexus of nearly every public policy debate and social movement since the Civil War, from women’s rights to student protests, from academic freedom to affirmative action, shaping policies that reverberate throughout the United States.
California Dreams narrates 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 the University 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. Drawing on extensive research in ten archives and dozens of interviews, California Dreams weaves together the linked history of the school and state in all its drama, significance, and humanity; the result is a magisterial narrative of both a remarkable public institution of higher education, and also California itself.
Critics Review
The roiling history of a 'multiversity.' Drawing on extensive archival sources, memoirs, and interviews, Pawel recounts the birth, rise, and ongoing transformations of the 'ten campuses, six health centers, three national laboratories, and hundreds of programs and research centers' that comprise the University of California...Recent assaults on higher education make California’s story newly relevant. A timely, sweeping examination of a major institution of higher education.
A powerful and inspiring history of one of America's greatest public institutions. Miriam Pawel shows how the University of California helped shape not only a state, but generations of lives. Essential reading for anyone who believes in the transformative power of education.
In California Dreams, Miriam Pawel tells the unbelievable story of the University of California and how it overcame parochialism and prejudice to transform itself–decade by decade–into a multi-ethnic engine of intellectual advancement and economic opportunity. In a time of terminal cynicism, Pawel gives us hope.
In California Dreams, her impressively researched, gracefully written history of the University of California, Miriam Pawel reminds us of the indispensable contributions American public universities have made and, one hopes, will continue to make to the health, vitality, and resilience of this nation and its peoples.
Miriam Pawel knows California like few other writers. California Dreams is a fascinating biography of the University of California, a $50 billion public university behemoth, and a shining engine of intellectual innovation, propelling millions of hard-working people into the middle-class. Pawel’s lively history demonstrates that the university has always been a controversial battleground for our own national struggles over equity, free speech, and liberal thought. But in the age of Donald Trump, this book is a must read for anyone concerned about the unprecedented attacks on our nation’s public and private universities.
California Dreams is a beautifully written and masterfully executed account of the nation's most renowned and preeminent public university system. It traces the democratic ethos that animated the University's founding, analyzes its evolution into an exemplar of excellence and opportunity, documents its vital contributions to the growth and wealth of the Golden State, and describes its deep and sometimes fraught connections to the vast array of students it educates, scholars who research and teach on its campuses, and constituents who hold it accountable. It is a must-read for those who believe in the transformative potential of public education--and for those who do not.
The University of California system is inseparable from California’s rise as a global leader in innovation and economic power. In this sweeping yet intimate narrative, Miriam Pawel tells the UC story through the experiences of individuals whose lives illuminate the system’s extraordinary reach and how it shaped not only the state’s remarkable rise but also America’s debates over equality, excellence, and opportunity. This book cements Pawel’s place alongside Carey McWilliams and Kevin Starr as one of the foremost storytellers of California history.
How do you write a great book about the history of the University of California? Pair the dreams of people whose lives were utterly changed by this remarkable system of higher education with the dreams of those who took is as their mission to build it and make it work. Most important: have it all come together through the research and writing of one of our most perceptive interpreters of history and hope in the Golden State. A timely, beautiful book.
California Dreams is a valuable and relatable history of the nation's most socially mobile, continually innovative, and numerically astonishing public university system. That Miriam Pawel tells this epic narrative through the stories of five graduates whose lives and learning illuminate the ways UC has changed the nation and the world, is brilliant. As a Distinguished Professor at UC Riverside, but also as a woman whose mother is an immigrant who was not able to graduate from high school, I am that first generation Californian who loves teaching in this massive system; my thousands of students, a large percentage of first-generation Californians as well, have also changed the world already with their innovative writing, research, and love for community. They are physicians, novelists, historians, scientists, and yes, professors.
| Author | Miriam Pawel |
|---|---|
| Narrator | Christina Delaine |
| Duration | 14 hours |
| Release Date | |
| ISBN | 9781639732753 |
| Format | Audiobook |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| Genre | Education, Social and cultural history |
| Availability | AU, GB, IE, US |
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