MixedThe Washington PostIn her biography of Elizabeth Warren, Antonia Felix recounts the moment the future U.S. senator went \'all in\' in her 2012 bid to represent Massachusetts ... But if it sounds familiar, that’s because Warren wrote about it in her autobiography A Fighting Chance ... There are a lot of moments like that here for any reader who has kept up with Warren’s career as a law professor, author, crusader for consumers’ rights, senator and possible presidential candidate ... The source listings do not include any interview of Warren or her family ... Felix’s admiration for her subject creates a very rosy picture of Warren ... The book omits any reference to doubts, however faint, about Warren’s bankruptcy research conclusions. We hear nothing about those who contend that her estimate of the percentage of bankruptcies arising from medical bills is vastly overblown ... But the book provides a solid discussion of the most controversial aspect of Warren’s career: her claim to Native American ancestry ... the biography gives a robust representation of both sides. Would that this approach had been used more fully elsewhere in the book.
Ben Sasse
MixedThe Washington PostSasse gives the impression that his book is intended as a warning siren only for those with incomes in the top 20 percent. It shouldn’t be. Sasse is too smart not to perceive the plight of the working poor or, to cite an example entirely absent from these pages, the challenges faced by a high school junior who is already working 20 hours a week to help his mother pay the rent. While the book ignores that demographic, Sasse’s overarching point is a good one ... at the very same time, he admits the obvious: There is a place for broad debate and creating a framework in government for many of these issues. Perhaps that will be Sasse’s next book, in which case I look forward to seeing the insights of Zeno of Citium and others unleashed upon government policy.
Alice Arlen and Michael J. Arlen
MixedThe Washington Post\"The authors devote more than 300 pages to her personal and professional life but, regrettably, overlook or ignore the tremendous barriers that existed in Patterson’s day for women in the workforce and in journalism. By not putting Patterson’s life and work in the context of that male-dominated era or the virtually all-male world of newspapers, the book plays down her accomplishments ... A modicum of discussion of the struggles of women in journalism would have strengthened this biography of a fascinating woman.\
