Biography
Paxton was born in Lexington, Virginia. He received a B.A. from Washington and Lee University, an M.A. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Paxton taught at the University of California, Berkeley and the State University of New York at Stony Brook before joining the faculty of Columbia University in New York, where he is now Mellon Professor Emeritus of Social Science in the Department of History.
Paxton was called to testify at the trial of Maurice Papon (1910–2007), who was convicted for crimes against humanity in 1998.
In April, 2009, the French government awarded Paxton the Legion d'honneur.
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