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A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren
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A Fighting Chance (original 2014; edition 2014)

by Elizabeth Warren

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6843333,556 (4.21)22
Biography & Autobiography. Politics. Nonfiction. HTML:

In A Fighting Chance, an unlikely political star tells the inspiring story of the two-decade journey that taught her how Washington really worksâ??and really doesn't

As a child in small-town Oklahoma, Elizabeth Warren yearned to go to college and then become an elementary school teacherâ??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 bankruptcy laws?

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 competitiveâ??and watchedâ??Senate race in the country.

In this passionate, funny, rabble-rousing audiobook, Warren shows why she has chosen to fight tooth and nail for the middle classâ??and why she has become a hero to all those who believe that America's government can and must do better for working… (more)

Member:outdoorsman
Title:A Fighting Chance
Authors:Elizabeth Warren
Info:Metropolitan Books (2014), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 384 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:None

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A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren (2014)

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» See also 22 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 33 (next | show all)
pick up on page 16
  pollycallahan | Jul 1, 2023 |
I'm voting for Warren. ( )
  auldhouse | Sep 30, 2021 |
In the interest of saving time (mine), I'll simply say that I basically agree with the May 8, 2014 comments of Goodreads reviewer Vicar Sayeedi on this book. He liked the book, recommends it to all, and praises Elizabeth Warren for being a positive force in our Country, for being an advocate for the average American, for protecting consumers, for being a creative thinker, and for becoming a politician who can work with others to get things accomplished. ( )
  rsutto22 | Jul 15, 2021 |
This book includes the major events in Warren's life and how those events affected her actions and her world view. Her writing is simple and straight-forward but there were times that I definitely felt like there were things she was not sharing. Not that she has to share those things but it just felt like a pencil outline of her life instead of a full vibrant painting. The policy work was pretty fascinating. She is very progressive and liberal and even if the reader is not (although I am so this is an assumption), it's hard not to just be enraged at big banks and politicians (often on both sides) that protect them. So often people are blamed for their poverty or their bankruptcy but the system is working against them and specifically and intentionally being sneaky about it. As a high school teacher even our education is failing people: I took calculus but never had a real discussion about financial literacy. If she does not win the Dem nomination, I sure hope she's put in charge of creating more policy to protect people financially. ( )
  Sarah220 | Jan 23, 2021 |
I love Elizabeth Warren and have for years. Ironically, my wife does not. While I don't necessarily agree with ALL of her positions, that can be said of any politician. Meanwhile, she's got some very good ideas, ideals, platforms, etc, and she's spunky as hell and has a big spine -- she can take on just about anyone.

Sadly, she'll never be elected and I think it would be disastrous if she ran. Sadly, America is about the only civilized first world country I can think of where we're so ass backwards and socially/culturally retarded, not to say misogynistic, that I don't know if a woman can EVER be elected in this country. Reagan Republicans seemed to love Thatcher and I've heard good things about Germany's female chancellor, among others. Thatcher was a strong leader and admired for that trait by many, although her career ended with controversy, somewhat like Reagan/Bush I. Nonetheless, just as a recent example, Hillary Clinton -- who is NOT my favorite politician or person -- ran against Trump as everyone knows, AND she WON the general election by at least TWO MILLION votes, which for the second time this century (Bush/Gore) proved what a total fraud the concept of popular vote is in this country and always has been, per the Founding Fathers, who created the Electoral College under the guise of the US Everyman being too damn stupid to know who to vote for, let alone even how to vote. So, these idiots who the political bosses put in place to "represent" their constituencies sometimes do and sometimes don't, in the most recent case, voting Donald Trump into office over Clinton despite the obvious proven fact that the majority of American voters didn't want Trump to win, and thus Hillary was the lesser of two evils.

Let me tell you, I've heard all of the arguments against Hillary. Some are legit, many are total crap and ESPECIALLY when compared to probably the most unprepared, literally dead stupid, crooked, greedy lying traitor of a politician in American history. He literally knew nothing about anything when he was elected, most alarming foreign policy (and the Constitution). He immediately mistrusted, hated and ignored our intelligence agencies and has waged war against actual intelligent (sometimes), experienced experts and politicians by replacing thousands of them either with deadbeat know nothing donor cronies who want to shred the government or leaves hundreds of positions unfilled. He has praised the worst dictators and human rights abusers in the world while offending and pushing away virtually all of our traditional allies. Meanwhile, Clinton spent 8 years in the White House and actually knows a thing or two about the Constitution, statehood, and as a former Senator and Secretary of State, about a million times more than Trump could ever learn about foreign policy or anything else, for that matter. And while there are unproven rumors that she is corrupt, anyone who believes she is actually worse than an alleged pedophile who sells access to the White House and every perk asked of him to any bidder, as the easiest lay in DC, degrading the position of President unlike anything anyone has ever anticipated. I cannot understand how anyone can support that cretin, especially the damn evangelicals and fundies who finally showed their true colors in voting for one of the most immoral men in history so they could gain power and demolish the evil "liberals" and progressives, thus turning this country into a conservative oppressive theocracy -- the exact opposite of what our Founding Fathers wanted, and most likely their savior, Jesus, too.

In any event, I went on too long on that analogy, but that's how I view Warren's chances in this country. She shows she's more intelligent than most of the (Republican) men in the room, she's got good ideas, plans on how to implement them -- if the Ted Cruz's of the world would stop being traitors to the country and actually do what our former politicians always did dating back to A Jackson, and make some damn compromises, and hence, legislation, rather than destroying the country with infantile shutdowns. She'll be hated and despised because she's a strong woman who has guts, and for the life of me, I'll never understand this, but American women -- particularly the fundies -- HATE strong Democratic women -- but they show their hypocracy when they go gaga and rally around the biggest loser airhead in US political history, that Sarah person. So Warren is a great leader, a great politician, an infinitely better choice than Trump or any of the loonies on the hard right who really are little but traitors to their country, as proven by supporting Trump and Putin over the US and our Constitution. I realize this review has been more about current US politics and the dysfunctional state we're in than this book itself, but if you haven't caught on by now, I think the author and her book are great, and certainly infinitely moreso than the moron in office or anyone like him. That said, nearly any non-loony with a brain would be better than what's in office in 2020. Recommended!!! ( )
  scottcholstad | Jan 23, 2020 |
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Epigraph
Dedication
For Octavia, Lavinia, Atticus, and all our children
First words
(Prologue) I'm Elizabeth Warren.
I know the day I grew up.
Quotations
I didn't know anything about Washington, but the bits I picked up from the press made it sound pretty awful.
...I was sick of politics. I'd had enough of Washington.
The giant banks employed countless executives, but not a single one would appear on television to defend their lending practices or explain all their lobbying in Washington.  Not one.
...the game was so rigged that working families never had a fighting chance. The big banks would eventually win. They simply had too much power.
...I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don't listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People--powerful people--listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don't criticize other insiders.
I had been warned.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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75,000 Copy First Paperback Printing with New Epilogue
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Wikipedia in English (3)

Biography & Autobiography. Politics. Nonfiction. HTML:

In A Fighting Chance, an unlikely political star tells the inspiring story of the two-decade journey that taught her how Washington really worksâ??and really doesn't

As a child in small-town Oklahoma, Elizabeth Warren yearned to go to college and then become an elementary school teacherâ??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 bankruptcy laws?

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 competitiveâ??and watchedâ??Senate race in the country.

In this passionate, funny, rabble-rousing audiobook, Warren shows why she has chosen to fight tooth and nail for the middle classâ??and why she has become a hero to all those who believe that America's government can and must do better for working

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