A book can’t rescue the American middle class. But a lot of politicians who say they want to rescue the American middle class are writing books about their travails and their vision — all timed to come out as the 2016 presidential election machinery kicks into gear.

The latest book comes from the newest, biggest hero of American progressives — Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Henry Holt announced this week it will release a new book by Warren in spring 2014.

“The book will tell the story of Senator Warren’s improbable rise from a working-class family in Oklahoma to the United States Senate, and of the opportunities and access to education that enabled her, as a young wife and mother, to become first a teacher, then a lawyer,” the publisher said in a news release. “Senator Warren’s book will deliver a rousing call for protecting the middle class – the backbone of America – and building a stronger country.”

Judging from the news release, Warren’s book will be a populist call to arms, as it recounts Warren’s efforts to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and her campaign “to expose the truth behind the $700-billion bank bailout.”


Warren was born in Oklahoma, earned a law degree and married her high-school sweetheart. She became the mother of two children, and later a Harvard Law School professor. In 2012, she defeated a Republican icon, Sen. Scott Brown, to win election to the U.S. Senate. The highlight of that Senate campaign was a viral video, shot at a private fundraiser, in which she skewered tea party thinking.

“For decades, America’s middle class has been chipped at, squeezed, and hammered,” Warren said in the news release. “I am eager to tell the story about my experiences on the frontlines of policymaking and to talk about what has happened to working families in this country and how we work together to rebuild the middle class.”

Warren is the author of two previous books, “All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan” and “The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke,” written with her daughter, Amelia Tyagi. John Sterling, editor at large for Macmillan, Henry Holt’s parent company, will edit Warren’s new book.

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hector.tobar@latimes.com