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Summary
Summary
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
An unlikely political star tells the inspiring story of the two-decade journey that taught her how Washington really works--and really doesn't--in A Fighting Chance
As a child in small-town Oklahoma, Elizabeth Warren yearned to go to college and then become an elementary school teacher--an ambitious goal, given her family's modest means. Early marriage and motherhood seemed to put even that dream out of reach, but fifteen years later she was a distinguished law professor with a deep understanding of why people go bankrupt. Then came the phone call that changed her life: could she come to Washington DC to help advise Congress on rewriting the bankruptcylaws?
Thus began an impolite education into the bare-knuckled, often dysfunctional ways of Washington. She fought for better bankruptcy laws for ten years and lost. She tried to hold the federal government accountable during the financial crisis but became a target of the big banks. She came up with the idea for a new agency designed to protect consumers from predatory bankers and was denied the opportunity to run it. Finally, at age 62, she decided to run for elective office and won the most competitive--and watched--Senate race in the country.
In this passionate, funny, rabble-rousing book, Warren shows why she has chosen to fight tooth and nail for the middle class--and why she has become a hero to all those who believe that America's government can and must do better for working families.
Author Notes
Elizabeth Warren worked as an elementary school teacher, a lawyer, and a law professor at Harvard University. She is the senior senator from Massachusetts.
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, she served as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Her efforts to protect taxpayers, to hold Wall Street accountable, and to ensure tough oversight of both the Bush and Obama Administrations won praise from both sides of the aisle. The Boston Globe named her Bostonian of the Year in 2009 for her oversight efforts. She helped created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
She is also the author of numerous books including All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan, The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke, and A Fighting Chance.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Warren, a rising star in progressive political circles who parlayed her decades of work as a legal scholar with a focus on consumer rights into a successful run for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, offers a fiery stump-speech style of delivery, in keeping with her populist persona. Even though she downplays her celebrity status and confesses to having serious stage fright during her initial national media appearances, Warren possesses a graceful ease in the recording booth. Her narration conveys the poise of an accomplished attorney and Harvard professor and the humble frankness of her working-class roots. Warren's colloquialisms-e.g., "hurrican' "-seem to flow naturally, without any hint of affectation. She doesn't shy away from a tone of righteous anger, particularly when it comes to lobbying by the banking industry. Nor is Warren afraid raise her voice as she names the leaders with whom she has butted heads. But she also makes a point to temper that emotion with touches of humility and humor. A Metropolitan hardcover. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
Senator Warren's (Prosperity, Peace, Respect) latest book, her fifth, is a memoir that provides an accessible and intriguing look into some of the most important domestic political issues of the past decade and the related maneuvering, negotiation, and political machinations of Washington. Warren makes a strong case that the story behind these issues, mostly related to financial regulation, should interest all Americans, regardless of political affiliation. In the beginning of the book, listeners will hear the story of her early life, both her blue-collar roots and her education, but Warren hits her stride and seems especially to enjoy the storytelling once she comes to the battles that have pulled her into a political career. The author comes across as humble and unapologetically down-home but also fierce and savvy, in spite of her outsider status in our nation's capital. Her political narrative relating her start in politics to her participation in the creation of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is straightforward without being dumbed down. The personal elements of her history are at times genuinely moving, as when she talks about her relationship with her father and her mother's return to work after the family suffered financial setbacks. Warren herself reads, which lends warmth, liveliness, and passion to her writing. If her political career and influence continue to expand, as many expect it to, this memoir's already considerable appeal will only increase. -VERDICT Consider strongly for all libraries. ["Lay readers and business students who need to understand how banking and lending regulation and legislation are enacted will appreciate the personal stories Warren uses to demonstrate the problems borrowers encounter, the solutions she worked for, and the disappointments she met along the way," read the review of the Metropolitan hc, LJ 5/15/14.]-Heather -Malcolm, Bow, WA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Prologue A Fighting Chance I'm Elizabeth Warren. I'm a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. For nearly all my life, I would have said I'm a teacher, but I guess I really can't say that anymore. Now I'd have to introduce myself as a United States senator, though I still feel a small jolt of surprise whenever I say that. This is my story, and it's a story born of gratitude. My daddy was a maintenance man and my mother worked the phones at Sears. More than anything, my parents wanted to give my three older brothers and me a future. And all four of us have lived good lives. My oldest brother, Don Reed, served twenty years in the military, with 288 combat missions in Vietnam to his credit. In good years, my brother John had a union job operating a crane, and in leaner years he took whatever construction work he could get. My brother David had a special spark; he started his own business, and when that didn't work out, he started another business, because he couldn't imagine a world where he wasn't living by his wits every day. I went to college and became a teacher, first for special-needs kids and then for law students; only much later did I get involved in politics. My brothers and I all married and had children, and my parents plastered their walls, their refrigerator, and their tabletops with pictures of their much-loved grandchildren. I will be grateful to my mother and daddy until the day I die. They worked hard--really hard--to help my brothers and me along. But we also succeeded, at least in part, because we were lucky enough to grow up in an America that invested in kids like us and helped build a future where we could flourish. Here's the hard truth: America isn't building that kind of future any longer. Today the game is rigged--rigged to work for those who have money and power. Big corporations hire armies of lobbyists to get billion-dollar loopholes into the tax system and persuade their friends in Congress to support laws that keep the playing field tilted in their favor. Meanwhile, hardworking families are told that they'll just have to live with smaller dreams for their children. Over the past generation, America's determination to give every kid access to affordable college or technical training has faded. The basic infrastructure that helps us build thriving businesses and jobs--the roads, bridges, and power grids--has crumbled. The scientific and medical research that has sparked miraculous cures and inventions from the Internet to nanotechnology is starved for funding, and the research pipeline is shrinking. The optimism that defines us as a people has been beaten and bruised. It doesn't have to be this way. I am determined--fiercely determined--to do everything I can to help us once again be the America that creates opportunities for anyone who works hard and plays by the rules. An America of accountability and fair play. An America that builds a future for not just some of our children but for all of our children. An America where everyone gets what I got: a fighting chance. My story seems pretty unlikely, even to me. I never expected to run for office--but then again, I never expected to do a lot of things in my life. I never expected to climb a mountain. I never expected to meet the president of the United States. I never expected to be a blonde. But here I am. The story starts in Oklahoma, where I grew up, and it tumbles through a life built around husbands and babies and setting the kitchen on fire. I made my way to a commuter college, a teaching job, a public law school, and, eventually, a professorship. As I started weaving in academic research, I became more and more worried about what was happening to America's families, and the story shifted to Washington, where I picked my first public fight. In 1995, I agreed to take on what I thought would be some part-time public service for a couple of years, and I quickly got caught up in a battle over our nation's bankruptcy law. I know that sounds a little obscure, but underneath it was a clash about whether our government exists to serve giant banks or struggling families. The battle lasted much longer than I'd expected--a full ten years, in fact. My own life threaded through, of course, with graduations and funerals and grandchildren of my own. When that battle ended, I picked up another, and then another and another--a total of five big fights in all. They ranged from fighting for a fresh start for families who had suffered a job loss or a serious illness, to trying to force the government to be transparent about what was really going on with the bank bailout, to tangling with the big banks over dishonest mortgages. But the way I see it, even as they took me this way and that, all five battles were about a single, deeper threat: America's middle class is under attack. Worse, it's not under attack by some unstoppable force of nature. It's in trouble because the game is deliberately rigged. This book tells a very public story about fraud and bailouts and elections. It also tells a very personal story about mothers and daughters, day care and dogs, aging parents and cranky toddlers. It's not meant to be a definitive account of any historical event--it's just what I saw and what I lived. It's also a story about losing, learning, and getting stronger along the way. It's a story about what's worth fighting for, and how sometimes, even when we fight against very powerful opponents, we can win. I never expected to go to Washington. Heck, for the most part I never even wanted to go. But I'm here to fight for something that I believe is worth absolutely everything: to give each one of our kids a fighting chance to build a future full of promise and discovery. Copyright © 2014 by Elizabeth Warren Excerpted from A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Table of Contents
Prologue: A Fighting Chance | p. 1 |
1 Choosing Battles | p. 5 |
2 The Bankruptcy Wars | p. 48 |
3 Bailing Out the Wrong People | p. 83 |
4 What $1 Million a Day Can Buy | p. 127 |
5 An Agency for the People | p. 164 |
6 The Battle for the Senate | p. 208 |
Epilogue: Fighting Again... and Again | p. 273 |
Notes | p. 279 |
Acknowledgments | p. 337 |
Index | p. 347 |