There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First… (2021)

Good read. Not what I was expecting.

You will recognize her as one of the defense specialists who testified in the first Trump impeachment attempt, but that is the focus of only a few pages in this compelling autobiography. Fiona Hill writes about her childhood in a dead coal mining town in the North East of England, and how she had to struggle to thwart the caste system that would have left her married and pregnant and poor at eighteen. Instead, thanks to her mother's job as a National Health nurse, her family was able to buy a home, which raised their standard of living and compensated for her father's loss of income when the local mine closed. She shares stories of other "clever lasses" who were the role models for her taking the difficult and frequently disqualifying final exams which make or break young British futures. Hill attended St. Andrews University (after being snubbed out of Oxford) and eventually received her doctorate at Harvard as a scholar on Russia. Much of the book is spent on comparisons of the misnamed "populism" that began with Yeltsin, Thatcher, and Reagan and descended into Putin, Nigel Farage, and Trump, and she’s incredibly knowledgeable about all three countries and cultures.

The most eye-opening passage explains how two prominent New York-based Jewish political consultants were recommended to Hungarian dictator Viktor Orban by Bibi Netanyahu so that they could establish George Soros as Orban’s quintessential external political enemy, a “classic, historical anti-Semitic conspiracy designed for political ends”.

The book closes with Hill’s suggestions to CEOS, retirees, young professionals, students, and academics on actions they can take to improve the lives of all citizens of the US, Great Britain, and Russia.

Quotes: “A college degree and other advanced or technical training were individuals’ personal investments in their own future, not part of the state’s investment in its population’s education or in the country’s future. The ethos of Thatcherism and Reaganism had spread form economics to education, which would prove disastrous on both a human and a political level.”

“Populist politicians claim to speak on behalf of millions of people with whom they in fact have no authentic connection, and in whom they have no genuine interest beyond securing votes to support their often very personal agendas.”

“Populists like Putin provide straightforward, plain-speaking explanations for people’s misfortunes by offering scapegoats, labels, and catchphrases.”

“Trump was selfish to his core and had the most fragile ego of anyone I had encountered to date. Everything and everyone was seen through his eyes in terms of how their interactions reflected on him and on what they said about him.” ( )