by Jo Freeman

 

This fascinating book is both a personal memoir and an analysis of social mobility in three countries: the UK, the US, and Russia.  Born in 1965, the author was raised in the UK. She came to the US on a scholarship in 1989 in order to become a policy expert on the Soviet Union, just as it began its dissolution.  After getting her Ph.D. from Harvard she became a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, eventually becoming a US citizen.

 

Her three countries have a lot in common.  All have significant regions which suffered from deindustrialization which in turn led to a decline of opportunity.  Loss of jobs and homes created civil unrest, spreading further and further.  Indeed, it led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Hill sees class and education as the primary divides, even in  Russia. Nonetheless, she is well aware that race goes deeper than class in the US, and being of the female gender closes doors in all three.

 

Hill has gone farther than anyone would have predicted from her humble origins — she says it was a fluke — but gender still held her back.  She writes about the gender pay gap in a chapter on Women’s Work but makes major observations throughout the book.  She doesn’t call herself a feminist, but she sees the world as one.  It’s hard not to when you are assumed to be a secretary or a servant or called the “Russia bitch.”

 

Her description of Donald Trump and his dysfunctional administration is consistent with that of other authors.  Trump was addicted to flattery and adulation.  A chapter section is called “Me, Me, Me.”  Hill says he suffered from “autocrat envy.”   He didn’t just admire Putin; he wanted to be like him.  Trump was angered by mere rumors that someone had said something negative about him.  He wanted to just snuff them out, with the alacrity of Putin and other autocrats.

 

An acute observer and a copious note-taker, she illustrates her points with “you are there” precision.  Her two years in the Trump administration sound pretty gruesome.  Any sane person aspiring to work in the White House should be persuaded to not go there.

 

Hill offers insight into Trump’s populist appeal by comparing it to the United Kingdom.  The election of Trump and the Brexit referendum followed similar patterns in the same year.  “Forgotten people” in “forgotten places” turned out in droves to follow a charismatic figure who promised to bring back the comforts and glories of their past.  That chapter is aptly entitled “Me, the People.”

 

Although Hill worked for the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, we only get details about Trump.  Since it’s not a short book, perhaps the publisher didn’t think reading about the earlier Presidents would generate sales.  Too bad.  Her other comparisons are illuminating; how these three men ran their domains should be as well.

 

This is a captivating book by a superb writer.  I’m sorry I never met her during the 15 years I used the Brookings Institution library.

 

© 2022 by Jo Freeman