Journalist and author Miriam Pawel launches her new history of the University of California at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena on Tuesday, Sept. 29, the day the book goes on sale.
Pawel will discuss and sign “California Dreams: The Making and Remaking of the University of California” at 7 p.m. at the store, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., in conversation with William Deverell, a professor of history at the University of Southern California and director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.
Pawel tells the university’s story partly through the lives of five graduates she describes as pioneering, drawing on research in 10 archives and dozens of interviews.
“Unravel any thread of modern California history, and eventually it leads back to the University,” Pawel writes. Her description of the book quotes Berkeley graduate Joan Didion calling the university “California’s best idea of itself.”
Pawel, a New York native who came to California in 2000, spent 25 years at Newsday and the Los Angeles Times and has written several books on California history. Her earlier books include “The Browns of California,” a history of the state told through four generations of the Brown family dynasty, and two books on Cesar Chavez and the farmworker movement.
Pawel has said a 2020 fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, where she researched income inequality in California, led her to focus on higher education.
“The whole system of public higher education in California fascinated and impressed me because it’s so different from the rest of the country,” Pawel said in an interview with the University of California, Davis.
Pawel’s scheduled appearances also include Oct. 1 at Bookshop Santa Cruz and Oct. 5 at the California State Library in Sacramento, where she will appear with Jerry Brown.
Vroman’s says buying the book from the store supports its author events. Vroman’s can be reached at (626) 449-5320.
Tuesday, Sept. 29, 7 p.m. Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. For more call (626) 449-5320 or visit https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-09-29/miriam-pawel.
