NewSouth author and preeminent southern historian Paul Gaston has received high praise from those attending recent events in support of his new memoir Coming of Age in Utopia: The Odyssey of an Idea.

Gaston was recently the guest of honor at the AFL-CIO where civil rights activist Julian Bond spoke and introduced him to a large and receptive crowd. Gaston discussed his new memoir, which highlights his life as a southern historian and social justice advocate during his time in Charlottesville as a professor of history at the University of Virginia.

Renowned author and academic Vernon Burton, who attended the AFL-CIO event, sang Gaston’s praises. “What a wonderful testament to a life so well lived and to what an academic can do,” he said. “I might add that [Gaston] was, and is, a model for many of us who were not his students at UVA as well.”

Event organizer and former Gaston student Roger Hickey also spoke highly of his mentor. He said, “Bob Welsh and I organized this book event because in the 1960s, we had the exciting experience of being students of Paul Gaston, the most courageous professor at the University of Virginia. At the conservative UVA of that time, Paul Gaston was our hero.”

Gaston also recently spoke, along with another former student and SNCC historian Andrew Lewis, at an event hosted by the University of Richmond. Gaston and Lewis discussed their recently published books with a focus on the role sit-ins and nonviolent resistance played in the civil rights movement.

Watch the entire University of Richmond program at C-Span’s Book TV.

Coming of Age in Utopia is available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online retailer.

The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star recently ran an op-ed piece, written by NewSouth author and historian Paul Gaston, honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and discussing his lasting influence on race relations and politics in the United States.

Gaston fondly recalls memories of meeting King while a professor at the University of Virginia over forty years ago, but focuses also on what he considers the modern misinterpretations by right-wing America of King’s radical message, as well as its assault on civil rights over the last generation.

From the article:

“King’s statement that his ‘dream is deeply rooted in the American dream’ is interpreted to discredit his radicalism; and his hope for the day when people would be judged ‘by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.’ It is enlisted in the battle against all legislation and programs that might help undo the effects of three and a half centuries of racial exclusion.”

Read the full article at the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star.

Paul Gaston’s life and work has earned him a reputation as one of the most respected southern historians in the country, and his new memoir, Coming of Age in Utopia: The Odyssey of an Idea, chronicles his life as an agent of change from the shores of Mobile Bay, Alabama to the streets and classrooms of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia.

Coming of Age in Utopia is available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online retailer.

Charlottesville, Virginia’s Daily Progress recently interviewed Paul Gaston—renowned historian and author of the newly published Coming of Age in Utopia: The Odyssey of an Idea—in anticipation of his upcoming book launch and signing on December 3 at 5:30 p.m. at the New Dominion Bookshop. Professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, Gaston will be reading from his new memoir and leading what is sure to be a deeply engrossing discussion.

In Coming of Age in Utopia, Gaston’s first book-length work in recent years, he chronicles his story of a committed life and reveals his deep roots in the unique utopian community of Fairhope, Alabama founded in 1894 by his grandfather and later led by his  father. But by the 1950s, it was clear that great changes were coming to the South, and Gaston began looking outward for ways to take part in the civil rights movement.

Gaston’s career at the University of Virginia, where he taught from 1957-97, forms the core of Coming of Age in Utopia, and the story Gaston tells of social change both in the city of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia is one in which he played a significant role. He related that role and the vision behind his new memoir in a recent interview with the Charlottesville Daily Progress.

From the article:

“I wanted to teach Southern history at a Southern university, and somehow be involved in the civil rights movement,” Gaston said. “So I was really lucky that I got a job at Virginia rather than the University of Alabama or the University of South Carolina, because the beatings down there were a lot more severe, and people got fired too.”

“I wanted to show that struggles for social justice don’t come easy, and they’re easily thwarted. And, I guess, insofar as I had a philosophical or historical point to make, it’s that when privilege is deeply engrained, change isn’t going to come from above—it has to come from below.

“And that was part of the civil rights movement, which I think most historians agree with. It wasn’t [John] Kennedy and [Lyndon] Johnson who changed everything, it was the people in the movement who forced the change.”

Read the full article at the Charlottesville Daily Progress website.

The Hook, Charlottesville’s weekly independent newspaper, also recently took note of Coming of Age in Utopia and Gaston’s upcoming New Dominion event. Read the full article at The Hook website.

Coming of Age in Utopia is available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online retailer.

Maurice Jones of the city of Charlottesville, Virginia recently interviewed Paul Gaston — author of the NewSouth published Coming of Age in Utopia: The Odyssey of an Idea — for Dialogue On Race, a new city initiative designed to improve race relations. The new program promises to bring people of diverse races and backgrounds together to find new ways to move forward together as a community.

Topics Gaston discussed include his life as a southern historian, his work as a civil rights activist, and the progressive change he’s witnessed over the past forty years in Charlottesville and at the University of Virginia.

In the interview, Gaston discussed his beginnings as both a teacher and civil rights activist. “As a student in college in the early 1950s, it was clear to me that the big issue coming to the South and the nation was the issue of civil rights,” he said. “I was looking for somewhere to enter the civil rights movement, and I decided what I’d like to do was teach southern history in a southern university and hold up a mirror to these students.”

Gaston also discussed his activist role during the civil rights movement in Charlottesville, noting that change didn’t come to the city overnight. “One thing I learned is that rational argument, evidence, and civil discussion did not change people’s minds,” he said. “Martin Luther King, Jr. was right — you had to shake people up. So we had sit-ins and soon all of the community’s attention was focused on what we were doing.”

Gaston reflected that these small steps weren’t necessarily great things, but given the context of the time, were transitional and made a difference. “That was a turning of the coin,” he said, “and I was lucky to be a part of it.”

Though he acknowledged there’s been great changes in Charlottesville and at the University of Virginia, Gaston remains adamant much work involving race relations remains, saying, “The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — those weren’t final triumphs. They were steps that cleared the way for important work, and there’s much work to be done.”

Watch the full interview at the City of Charlottesville website.

Paul Gaston’s life and work has earned him a reputation as one of the most respected southern historians in the country, and his new memoir, Coming of Age in Utopia: The Odyssey of an Idea, chronicles his life as an agent of change from the shores of Mobile Bay, Alabama to the streets and classrooms of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia. NewSouth also published Gaston’s highly regarded The New South Creed: A Study in Southern Mythmaking, considered to be one of the most influential works of Southern history of the twentieth century.

Coming of Age in Utopia is available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite local or online book retailer.