Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century: Fiona Hill's Insight into Making the Most of Modern Life

L.C. Brown: Only 120 pages (p. 169-281) are about her interactions with Trump while working for two years in the White House, covering Trump's horrific news conference with Putin in Helsinki, the build-up to her testimony during the 1st impeachment re the Ukrainian phone call, and the Russian interference and/or influence in the White House. I really wanted to like this book as I appreciated her testimony at the impeachment, but 3/4 of the book is her life story, and others', in way too much detail. It also includes her views on the economies of both the U.K. where she was raised, the U.S. where she earned her degrees, and on Russia, where she became an expert in its modern political machinations. She concludes with a huge wish list of how countries should be run economically by granting equality in access to all. It repeats a lot of the first half of the book. Also, it's as if she didn't know who her audience would be: Americans, British, or her scholastic peers and students - but it certainly should not have included everything that it did because she came off as bitter over her childhood stories of poverty and prejudice, and it ended up as a diatribe on how nations should behave themselves...

United States on Nov 25, 2023

Patricia Marie LaFramboise: I am extremely impressed with the personal insights and unbiased portrayals of her life experiences. It is heartbreaking to hear about her time at the whitehouse. I am moved by her ability to weave her education and life experiences into an explanation of the global impacts of misinformation and how a populist base can so easily divide a nation. An exceptional read. Love an author that helps us get through the noise. I am an advocate for equal opportunity in education. Hits the heart of a very complex problem.

United States on Oct 30, 2023

Graeme Webster: I read this book quite quickly; it is well and coherently written, and the arguments are easy enough to follow. I withheld one star because it does tend to be a little repetitive, but it is a fascinating story about the rise of a young girl from the depths of bone-crushing penury to the top of her chosen profession. Along the way, she is a witness to some of the momentous events of our times, and in the presence of many of the 'great and good'. It is also a testament to the very real and practical assistance she was given by those who were not obliged to give it, which I personally found uplifting, and for which Dr Hill appears to be appropriately grateful.
Finally, Dr Hill makes a clarion call for what I would consider to be one of the most important roles of government - the appropriate provision of opportunity for all members of a society, not just those who have a majority of the chance in life by virtue of accident of birth.
An interesting and worthwhile read.

Australia on Sep 09, 2023

RL: Fiona Hill highlights one of the defining challenges of our age - how social mobility has died in western society and how we can stop that happening. Her fascinating back story helps lay the groundwork. Compulsive reading for anyone who cares about the world and society we are leaving behind for our children

United States on Jul 20, 2023

Robert Davies: Well written personal account of her life.
However, the constant blaming of Margaret Thatcher for the problems of the North East with only a belated and small acknowledgment of the wider economic situation did become tedious.
Moreover, I found myself wishing that she had provided some comparative data on how
the challenges of educating the less well-off are tackled in other rich countries such as France, Germany, Australia and Canada.
Her insights into the Trump presidency are brilliant, if scary, and I for one would have liked more thoughts on how to deal with some of the issues that modern democracy are throwing up.

United Kingdom on Jan 01, 2023

Barnowljenx: I found the analysis of industrial decline in the UK, the USSR and the USA very interesting. Fiona Hill is well qualified to set these out as she came from a deprived area in the UK and studied in the USSR as that organisation collapsed and then studied and worked in the USA visiting the many deprived areas there. I had not thought to correlate the experiences of these 3 quite different countries and was taken by how similar they were in that respect. I did find the final chapters covering what to do to address these issues was very worthy but not nearly as interesting as the earlier part of the book. Sorry!

United Kingdom on Oct 24, 2022

Annie Collins: This book gives a eye opening view on the education and opportunity for your average state school kids in 1960 and onwards in the UK. It also explains quite clearly why Trump got into power and why, shocking though it may seem, he may very well get into power again. Lengthy book but well worth reading. It makes you look again at the people in power around you and whether or not they just might be economical with the truth if it suits them. Food for serious thought or serious food for thought, probably both.

United Kingdom on Aug 20, 2022

Peter: First encountered Fiona Hill when she gave testimony in first Trump impeachment hearings, where she should stood out as an extraordinarily articulate and knowledgeable policy expert, especially on Russian issues. Confident and with a fearless ability to speak truth to power, she epitomized the value of having people willing to present factual analysis as the basis for complex policy decisions. The book is highly readable and engaging, part memoir and part advocacy, detailing how she was able to transcend limits imposed by birth as a coal miner’s daughter in economically depressed England, then using her academic gifts, hard work, and brave self confidence to become an internationally respected policy analyst in senior Washington circles. An excellent read and inspiring to think how much better the world would be with more people like Fiona Hill working behind the scenes to help government function properly, and supporting good decisions based on facts and a sound ethical perspective.

Canada on Jun 14, 2022

Tuscanwino: Having read the versions of Trump’s final years in office in the memoirs of Ambassador Yovanovitch and Lt. Colonel Vindman, I looked forward to Fiona Hill’s input. The first half of the book leads up to her time in the Trump era limelight—very, very slowly. Certainly, there is interest in her origins in the Northeast of England, and in factors leading to her decision to come to the U.S. for higher education at Harvard. She also, however, presents a narrative that is more appropriate to an historical treatise (albeit very biased). This continues in the second half, Ms. Hill telling us what we have been reading in the papers but nothing about her role (if any). Most annoying, in the first half, is her constant reference to the inequalities felt by the female sex. What is she whining about? She got to the Oval Office, after all, having been born a relatively poor coal-miner’s daughter in another country. [Vindman does his share of whining, too. Not so Yovanovich, who takes it like a man.] Then there’s the continuing nonsense about how her north-country rural accent puts her at a disadvantage. Sorry, lady, but it is entirely possible to not only modify an accent but to lose...

United States on May 01, 2022

Jason Galbraith: I had only read a few chapters of "There Is Nothing For You Here" when I 1) ordered a copy for the most interesting man I know, and 2) insisted this book be the next one read by my nonfiction book group.

I really think a great coming-of-age movie could be made of Fiona Hill's chapters about how she got out of County Durham in North East England. This is not just another tell-all book by a disillusioned veteran of the Trump administration. It is an attempt to explore why Putin, Trump and Johnson wound up in charge of their respective countries at the same time. Its greatest characteristic is the real affection with which Hill writes about the ordinary people of not only her native UK, but the US and even Russia.

The Washington Post maintains that democracy dies in darkness. But democracy also dies when the elite doesn't care about ordinary people, which was true for all three of these countries for about 30 years following Gorbachev stepping down. Indeed, he was the last leader of one of these countries to really care about ordinary people, before Biden came along. This accounts for him placing their welfare above the survival of the empire he inherited.

Should...

United States on Feb 21, 2022