ELIZABETH WARREN

The latest in the Queens of the Resistance series, exploring the life and career of “political samurai” Elizabeth Warren.

Like each subject of Jones and Trotman’s series, Oklahoma native Warren has long worked to achieve social and political justice. She grew up in a family in which the breadwinning role unexpectedly shifted to her homemaker mother after a heart attack left her father in poor health. At 12, Warren began to help her family financially, first by babysitting and then by waitressing. An excellent student, she attended college but dropped out to marry her high school sweetheart. She earned her degree several years later and began working as a children’s speech pathologist. Forced to leave her job due to pregnancy, Warren went to law school, divorced her tradition-minded husband, and became a single mother to two small children. Warren’s path led to academia, where she became an expert in bankruptcy. This led to a political realignment from Republican to Democrat and an awakening regarding the status of working-class Americans. Later, as a Harvard professor, she served on the Congressional Oversight Panel to monitor how the Treasury Department managed the Great Recession bank bailout. Though reluctant to enter politics, Warren became the first woman senator from Massachusetts in 2013 and a symbol of outspoken persistence in the face of government patriarchy. Galled by the “circus behavior” of the Trump administration, Warren became a 2020 presidential candidate “with a plan,” fighting on behalf of “regular people who just want[ed] a fair shake.” This unabashedly feminist biography is sometimes irritatingly familiar and casual in tone—“I mean gosh, little lady, don’t get so specific with your ‘planz’ ”; “Hadn’t she learned from Hillary? Too smart, little lady, that means you’ll lose. And God forbid she wear a pantsuit! Nooooooo.”—but it’s still a hopeful, educative read.

Illuminatingly spirited.