From her work on bankruptcy laws and her books on America’s squeezed middle class, to her role as TARP watchdog and creator of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to her latest turn as U.S. senator, Elizabeth Warren has set herself firmly on the side of hard-working people and against financial predators. In a must-read new book, A Fighting Chance, Senator Warren tells the story of her modest upbringing in Oklahoma, where she saw firsthand how working families struggle, and recounts her career trajectory from teacher to law professor to Washington powerhouse, where she has taken on the most formidable financial force on Earth, the American banking system. Senator Warren shares with AlterNet the thinking behind her new book and its key themes, as well as its connection to another must-read, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century.

Lynn Parramore: What prompted you to write this book?

Elizabeth Warren: I grew up in a family that nearly lost everything, but I ended up in the United States Senate because I grew up in an America that invested in kids like me and built a real future for us. This book is an eyewitness account of how the playing field has been tilted since […]