Strong Woman Writes Memoir on the Burdens of Leadership

On the same day last week, two Democratic women published political memoirs. One was a frank and engaging tale of butting heads with the media and doing battle with an upstart populist progressive. The other was written by Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton's What Happened is a litany of excuses and little else and so, of course, it garnered all of the attention. But Eva Moskowitz’s account of founding New York’s Success Academy Charter Schools, known for their rapid growth, high-stakes lottery admissions, and “no-excuses” recipe for excellence, is a worthier read.

The shared pub date was unintentional, so far as Moskowitz knows. (She does intend to read What Happened: “I voted for Hillary,” she told me, “And who doesn’t wonder what happened? She should know better than anyone.”) Sept.12, 1941 was also the day Moskowitz’s maternal grandparents, Jewish refugees, docked in New York Harbor—an anniversary more meaningful than the day her sister Democrat’s moribund defeat explainer hits the stands.

The two women, with their cursory commonalities and “nasty woman” narratives, certainly make uncanny foils. Both cut their teeth in New York politics, though on different scales: a former first lady running for Senate, a former college professor running for city council. They even have in common their duels with lefty populists—Bernie Sanders for Clinton and Bill de Blasio for Moskowitz. Both books devote serious yardage the big mean media machine too, and neither spares mention of President Trump.

Moskowitz, a Democrat, still holds the “very unpopular opinion” that elections are meant to be moved on from. She greeted Trump’s win with “cautious optimism”—which she tells me has dissolved in recent months—and, at the time, declined to serve as his education secretary but chastised those who rooted for his failure.