There Is Nothing for You Here, page 46
I am also extremely grateful to Jane and John Armstrong, Jean Clarke, John Letherbridge, Peter Moore, and other staff and volunteers at Woodhouse Close Community Church; Allison McInnes (a Bishop Barrington classmate), from Northumbria University’s Department of Social Work, Education, and Community Well-being; Brian Stobie, from Durham County Council’s International Office; and Alison Tweddle, from the Auckland Project, for providing insight into current circumstances in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and the North East related to the themes of the book. And I am similarly grateful to the new generation of students from Bishop Auckland, including Niall Cronin and Thomas Hodgson, who got in touch to fill me in on their travails and successes of applying to university and finding jobs. Niall experienced the same challenges I had in overcoming the opportunity barrier of a North East accent in addition to the difficulties of job-hunting from the vantage point of County Durham after college. Almost four decades later, in 2021, as the first in his family to apply to college, Thomas had a similar experience to mine with Oxford University and opted to go to St. Andrews in its aftermath.
Outside Bishop Auckland, Peter Hughes, a transplant to the United States from the coal-mining town of Stanley, County Durham, provided additional insight into life in the pit villages around World War II and in the 1950s. Peter’s uncle, Jack Hughes, was a British union activist and member of Parliament for the Labour Party. As “Red Jack,” he became famous for his protests against Margaret Thatcher’s social policies in the late 1980s. Peter made his own transition from the coal house to the White House, immigrating to America as a young man and later working in the Reagan administration. He was an early proponent of the book, along with Alan Capps and Richard Pomfret, other refugees from the British class system. I also found great personal inspiration in William Woodruff’s 1993 autobiography, The Road to Nab End: An Extraordinary Northern Childhood, a story of growing up in poverty in Blackburn, a Lancashire textile town, just after the First World War, before making a remarkable educational journey in the UK and ending up as a renowned professor of world history, including at the University of Illinois, Melbourne in Australia, Princeton, and the University of Florida. Professor Woodruff’s life story is fused with British social history from half a century before mine. He was part of the generation between my grandparents and parents. He made it to Oxford in the late 1930s, despite an entirely unconventional education, including working in an iron foundry while he put himself through night school. The university waived the exam for him.
A current generation of St. Andrews students filled me in on the difficulties of navigating the UK university system in the 2020s, including Chris Anderson, Stella Ezeh, Leo Kelly, Morgan Morris, Manhattan Murphy-Brown, Hampton Toole, and Julia Whalen. I also greatly appreciated my conversations with St. Andrews principal Sally Mapstone, chancellor Lord Menzies Campbell, rector Leyla Hussein, former rector Catherine Stihler, rectorial candidate Ken Cochran, professor Brad MacKay, and Moira Sharkey. I owe a great deal of debt to Lord George Robertson, the late John Sullivan, and Frank Quinault for their support while I was a student at the university; and to Mike Bird of the British Council for all his efforts to help me apply to scholarships to Harvard and the United States in the late 1980s. And of course I am indebted to professor Robert Legvold for telling me about the educational opportunities in the U.S. and showing me how to use a drip coffee machine in Moscow in 1988.
Professor Graham Allison, professors Abe and Toni Chayes, dean Margot Gill, professor Akira Iriye, professor János Kornai, Joe and Marina McCarthy, professor Richard Pipes, professor Jurij and Emanuela Striedter, Patty Walsh, Dr. Dorothy Zinberg, and other inspirational professors and close colleagues at Harvard were instrumental in helping me set off on my career path. They and Bill Maynes, who hired me out of Harvard to the Eurasia Foundation and then recommended me to Richard Haass, who was then at the Brookings Institution, for my research fellow position, all took a chance on me. They pushed me forward. Cliff Gaddy, my long-term scholarly collaborator at Brookings, provided me with a decades-long master class in economics, for which I am particularly grateful. All my male mentors had something in common: accomplished wives who were equal partners in their relationships. In some cases they also had daughters whose lives and future careers they were fully engaged in—much like my own father.
This book was written between October 2020 and May 2021. In writing the final manuscript, I benefited from the ongoing research of many colleagues at the Brookings Institution, who generously took the time to brainstorm on core concepts, shared sources, and offered critiques and cautions. Participation in numerous Brookings conferences, seminars, and private meetings gave me a unique opportunity to engage in one-on-one or small group discussions with a range of Brookings scholars and staff working on the topics covered in the book: Stephanie Aaronson, John Austin, Dany Bahar, Alan Berube, Sarah Binder, Gary Burtless, Camille Busette, Stuart Butler, E. J. Dionne, David Dollar, Leah Dreyfuss, Courtney Dunakin, Wendy Edelberg, Bob Einhorn, Marcela Escobari, Vanda Felbab-Brown, Jeff Feltman, Bill Finan, William Frey, Bill Galston, Josh Gotbaum, Ryan Hass, Susan Hennessey, Bruce Jones, Bob Kagan, Marvin Kalb, Elaine Kamarck, Molly Kinder, Aaron Klein, Amy Liu, Tanvi Madan, Chris Meserole, Mark Muro, Andre Perry, Ted Piccone, Tony Pipa, Jonathan Rauch, Rashawn Ray, Sarah Reber, Richard Reeves, Bruce Riedel, Molly Reynolds, Frank Rose, Martha Ross, Ashley Ruttenberg, Natan Sachs, Belle Sawhill, Mireya Solis, Shibley Telhami, Jennifer Vey, David Wessel, Darrell West, Vanessa Williamson, Rebecca Winthrop, Ben Wittes, and Tamara Wittes. I am extremely grateful to all of them for sharing their research conclusions and firsthand experiences, as well as for offering me their analyses of developments in the United States and opinions on the project. I have benefited greatly from their articles, blog posts, and public commentary, and from the work of the late and much-missed Alice Rivlin.
I owe a special note of thanks to the Robert Bosch Foundation for ongoing support to the Brookings Institution and my research there, as well as to Brookings donors and trustees Bob Abernethy, Alan Batkin, Jonathan Colby, Susan Crown, Nancy Hewett, Lou Anne Jensen, David Weinberg, and Daniel Yergin, and to Brookings colleagues who encouraged me in writing this book and helped me carve out space to get it done: Brookings Institution president John Allen, special adviser Corey Broschak, chief of staff Elliot Fleming; Patrick Cole, Lucy Kim, Jesse Kornbluth, and Miguel Vieira of the Brookings development team; and other key Brookings staff, including Irena Barisic, Jackie Basile, Cy Behroozi, Michael Cavadel, Ian Dubin, Wakeen Edwards, Julia McManus, April McWilliams, Sean Meehan, Laura Mooney, Robert Moss, John Parker, and Sandra Peters. Brookings Foreign Policy Program vice president Suzanne Maloney, Center on the U.S. and Europe (CUSE) director Tom Wright, Foreign Policy Program research director Mike O’Hanlon, Leo Pasvolsky, senior fellow Carol Graham, president emeritus Strobe Talbott, and close colleagues Pavel Baev, Carlo Bastasin, Célia Belin, Natalie Britton, Giovanna De Maio, Sam Denney, Jim Goldgeier, Emilie Kimball, Jamie Kirchick, Kemal Kirisci, Caroline Klaff, Andy Moffatt, Anna Newby, Steve Pifer, Doug Rediker, Kevin Scott, Javier Solana, Constanze Stelzenmüller, and Torrey Taussig all shared ideas and perspectives. They also helped with source materials and offered moral support. Brookings interns who took part in discussions with me over the course of writing the book—A’ndre Gonawela, Gibbs McKinley, Jerôme Nicolaï, Lucy Seavey, and Chloe Suzman—and Clara O’Donnell fellows Khrystyna Parandii, Katherine Pye, and Leonard Schuette also helped me with ideas and materials.
Outside the Brookings Institution, several groups invited me to participate in workshops related to the book topics in 2020–2021. Director James Arroyo, Emerson Csorba, Natasha Whitmill, and other staff at Ditchley Park in the UK included me in a series of virtual workshops and summits with the Lumina Foundation. These meetings brought together UK government ministers, mayors from the U.S. Midwest and UK North East, the heads of other prominent foundations, nonprofits, and universities, and youth representatives to discuss UK-U.S. relations, comparative deprivation, the challenge of renewing democracies, the role of education, recognizing talent and regaining aspiration and opportunity, and how to bridge geographic divides. As I wrapped up work on the manuscript, Jamie Merisotis of the Lumina Foundation shared perspectives from his book Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines, and Ben Delo, Jeremy Hildreth, and Jamie MacFarlane offered their perspectives on the role of philanthropy in shaping opportunity. In the U.S., Daniel Stid at the Hewlett Foundation brought me into various seminars for reviewing themes and provided insights into his and Hewlett grantees’ work on renewing democracy; Maya MacGuineas and Mike Murphy at FixUS shared their insights with me, as did Lukas Haynes from the David Rockefeller Fund and Max Stier from the Partnership for Public Service. Mike Berkowitz and Rachel Pritzker included me in their “Patriots and Pragmatists” meetings. They offered invaluable insights and inspiration.
As I worked on the original proposal and then moved forward with the research and manuscript, many people shared their reactions, including Michael Abramowitz, Richard Ades, David Agranovich, Douglas Alexander, Danielle Allen, Joe Amprey, Anne Applebaum, Ellen Archer, Tim Ash, Cathy Ashton, Brian Bacon, Thomas Bagger, Peter Baker, Shachar Bar-On, Preet Bharara, David Becker, Horton Beebe-Center, Miji Bell, John Bellinger, Gina Bennett, Charlie Bergen, Brad Berkley, Carl Bernstein, Bonnie Bertolaet, Emily Alinikoff Bilbao, Martha Blaxall, Mark Blyth, Charles and Ché Bolden, Julian Borger, Chris Bort, Berkeley and Heather Breathed, John Bridgeland, Reuben Brigety, Ian Brodie, Christian Brook, Archie Brown, Christopher Broxholme, Lauren Buitta, Richard Burger, Vince Cable, Michael Calingaert, Ash Carter, Eric Ciaramella, Emily Carrier, Christian Caryl, Seth Center, Julian Chang, Sam Charap, Chris Chivvis, Adrian Cleasby, Peter Clement, Elliot Cohen, Lisa Coll, Tim Colton, Alex Cooley, Tom Cosgrove, Vassilis Coutifaris, Gretchen Crosby-Sims, Stephen Crowley, Alan Cullison, Keith Darden, Kim Darroch, Janine Davidson, Sarah Davies, Emma Dench, Georgi Derlugian, Barry Didcock, Pawel Dobrowolski, Fiona Dogan, Karen Donfried, Chris Donnelly, Ona Dosunmu, Bill Drozdiak, Daphne Dufresne, Markus Ederer, Doug Elliott, Adam Entous, Steve Erlanger, Philippe Etienne, Alexander Evans, Lara Flint, Michèle Flournoy, Dan Fried, Julia Friedlander, Michael Fullilove, Regina Galer, Robin Gellman, Geoffrey Gertz, Sarah Gilbert, Susan Glasser, Dan Goldberg, Amy Gordon, Nigel Gould-Davies, J. J. Green, the late and much-missed Shane Green, Barbara Grewe, Brian Grzelkowski, Sergei Guriev, Richard Haass, Emily Haber, Nina Hachigian, Avril Haines, John Hamre, Simon Hare, Geoffrey Harris, Shane Harris, Mark Harvey, Hitesh Hathi, John Henriksen, Maura Henry, Francis Hills, Peter Hirst, Jess Hobart, Dan Hoffman, Martin Indyk, Connie Irons, Nick Irons, Andrew Jack, Aaron James, Pam Jewett, Lee Johnson, Timothy Jones, Ludmilla Jordanova, Steve Kaplan, Kirsti Kauppi, Kathy Kavalec, Michele Kelemen, Maura Reynolds Kelley, Bridget Kendall, Paul Kennedy, Thomas Kent, Barbara Keys, Nina Khrushcheva, Keertan Kini, Paul Kolbe, Chris Kojm, Jonathan Koppell, David Kramer, Chris Krebs, Ben Krueger, Charlie Kupchan, Matt Lantz, Susan Lazorchick, Natasha Lebedeva, Philippe Le Corre, Martha Leishman, Paul Lekas, Yuval Levin, Jim Levinsohn, Kadri Liik, Johannes Linn, Ava and Paul Linton, John Lloyd, Eric Liu, Jenny Lo, Viviana Lopez-Green, Edward Lucas, Jennifer Luff, Mark Malcomson, Tesia Mamassian, Sigal Mandelker, Stuart McCormick, Anne McElvoy, Ellen McHugh, Cathy McLaughlin, H. R. McMaster, Tom McTague, Anand Menon, Claire and David Merkel, Greg Miller, Molly Montgomery, Sarah Moor, Edwina Morton, Simon Marks, Yascha Mounk, Daniel Mulhall, Michael Mullen, Grant Murphy, Vivek Murthy, Nancy Nachbar, Elena Nachmanoff, Ellen Nakashima, James Nixey, Toria Nuland, Melanie Okuneye, Arkady Ostrovsky, Meghan O’Sullivan, Bob Otto, Gene Park, Bruce Parrott, Norma Percy, Emily Perkins, Tom Pickering, Karen Pierce, Alexander Pivovarsky, Ruth Pojman, Jane Prokop, Manveen Rana, Jamie Raskin, Brian Reed, Dakota Roberson, Lori Robinson, Chuck Rosenberg, Jonathan Rozenberg, Trudy Rubin, Blair Ruble, Andrew Sanders, John Scarlett, Lucas Schoch, Daniela Schwarzer, Jim Sciutto, Anula Seelawathie, Klaus Segbers, Demetri Sevastopulo, Minouche Shafik, Jeremy Shapiro, David Shimer, Zach Shore, Katy Simmons, Amanda Sloat, Ben Smith, Jason Smith, Stephen Kennedy Smith, Yuri Somov, David Speedie, Lesley Stahl, Paul Starobin, Danica Starks, Angela Stent, “Sully” Sullenberger, Tammy Sun, Barrett Takesian, Michael Tatham, Bill Taylor, David Taylor, Kim Teri, Hannah Thoburn, Harold Trinkunas, Robert Tsai, Misha Tsypkin, Charlie Undeland, Alexandra Vacroux, Justin Vaisse, Ian Vasey, Alex Vindman, Tessa Walker, Joe Wang, Melissa Weintraub, Andrew Weiss, Gavin Wilde, Clete Willems, Ted Wittenstein, Martin Wolf, Beatrix von Watzdorf, Casimir Yost, Marie Yovanovitch, Daniel Ziblatt, Tim Ziemer, and Fabian Zuleeg.
Many of this large group of friends, colleagues, and distant acquaintances provided insights and raised important questions about core ideas. They also flagged articles in the press that I might not otherwise have seen, suggested individuals I should approach for interviews, and sent me their own and other publications for reference. Some even allowed themselves to be interviewed and then agreed to be featured or referenced in the book, for which I am extremely grateful. Although I did not hesitate to impose on them and others to ask for their input, I alone bear responsibility for any errors or misinterpretations of their perspectives. The generosity of those mentioned in assisting me should in no way be interpreted as their personal endorsement of my ideas and interpretations, nor of the accuracy of the information presented.
I am especially grateful to Agneska Bloch, Angela Hill, Ken Keen, Filippos Letsas, and Chuck Young for brainstorming all the way along, reading the first drafts, and offering advice on how to improve the book. Editor Alex Littlefield and the team at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt—Megan Wilson, Deb Brody, Lori Glazer, Liz Duvall—and agents Andrew Nurnberg and Jenny Savill, along with Charlotte Merritt and Saskia Willis and all their colleagues, are the people who made this book possible. They had faith in the idea in the first place, provided thematic suggestions, critical feedback, important editorial advice, and support at all points along the way. This manuscript would also not have happened without the team who got me through my congressional testimony and its aftermath in 2019–2020: my lawyers, Sam Ungar and Lee Wolosky; Mia Wolosky, who came to sit behind me and offer moral support during the public hearing; and the PR gurus of the Levinson Group—Molly Levinson, Caitlin Klevorick, Kylie McKenna, Colin Reed, and Kristin Rudman—who helped me navigate my unexpected moment in the international spotlight.
I would finally like to thank everyone I served with at the NIC, ODNI, the NSC, the White House, and the U.S. government, many of whom helped prompt me to write this through endless conversations and shared experiences. And to all the people who wrote to me in 2019–2020 and continue to do so, thank you! Your letters informed this book, and I am very grateful for the personal gifts and mementos.
Fiona Hill
Washington, D.C., June 2021
Notes
PROLOGUE: THE “IMPROBABLE” FIONA HILL
“Their testimony was pointed”: Robin Givhan, “Their testimony was pointed. Their clothes were reassuringly dull,” Washington Post, November 21, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/11/21/their-testimony-was-pointed-their-clothes-were-reassuringly-dull/.
the “improbable” Fiona Hill: Demetri Sevastopulo, “Fiona Hill: ‘I knew more about what was going on in the Kremlin,’ ” Financial Times, June 12, 2020, https://www.ft.com/content/e51f701e-aa62-11ea-a766-7c300513fe47.
INTRODUCTION: FROM THE COAL HOUSE TO THE WHITE HOUSE
only 10 percent . . . had something lined up: Martin Cooper, “The youth unemployment ‘crisis’ of the 1980s: How two comprehensive schools have responded,” Evaluation & Research in Education 3, no. 2 (1989): 81–88.
“the authoritarians’ playbook”: See Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism (New York: Doubleday, 2020); Theodor W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel Levinson, and Nevitt Sanford, The Authoritarian Personality (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950); David Runciman, How Democracy Ends (London: Profile, 2019); Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (New Tork: Tim Duggan, 2017); Timothy Snyder, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (New York: Vintage, 2018); Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky, How Democracies Die (New York: Crown, 2019).
1. “CALL THE UNITED NATIONS”
acutely class-based society: Mike Savage, Social Class in the 21st Century (London: Pelican, 2015).
Margaret Thatcher was a trailblazer: Peter Jenkins, Mrs. Thatcher’s Revolution: The Ending of the Socialist Era (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988).
commanding heights: Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, The Commanding Heights: The Battle Between Government and the Marketplace (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002).
last pit in County Durham: “Coal Mining and Durham Collieries,” Durham County Record Office, accessed March 10, 2021, http://www.durhamrecordoffice.org.uk/article/10560/Coal-Mining-and-Durham-Collieries.
the last shipment: Chris Robinson, “Last coal shipment leaves River Tyne,” BBC News, February 18, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-56071386.
the rise of coal: Coal Mining in County Durham (Durham: Durham County Environmental Education Curriculum Group, 1993).
2,600 people on its books: John Sansick, “The jewel in British rail’s crown: an account of the closure at Shildon Wagon Works” (PhD diss., Durham University, 1990), 29, http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6230/1/6230_3585.PDF?UkUDh:CyT.
