A Fighting Chance

An unlikely political star tells us how Washington really works and really doesnt. As a child in small-town Oklahoma, Elizabeth Warren yearned to go to college and become a teacher. Early motherhood seemed to put 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 to help Congress rewrite the bankruptcy laws? So began an unsentimental education in the bare-knuckled 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 tried to protect consumers from predatory bankers, but was thwarted. Finally, at 62, she decided to run for the Senate, and won. In this passionate, funny, rabble-rousing book, Warren shows why she fights tooth and nail for the middle class and why she has become a hero to all those who believe that Americas government can and must do better.