Brief History of the University of California

This project, undertaken by Patricia Pelfrey from 2002-2004, expanded and updated a small book commissioned as part of the University’s centennial celebration in 1968 called A Brief History of the University of California. The original Brief History, an account of the origins and rise of what became the nation’s leading public research university, concluded with the administration of President Charles J. Hitch in the early 1970s. Expanded and updated through the selection of President Robert C. Dynes in 2003, A Brief History of the University of California, Second Edition was published by UC Press in 2004.