The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For: How a New Generation of Leaders Will Transform America

Time magazine correspondent Alter explores the lives and careers of millennial politicians in this well-crafted and informative group biography, her debut. Alter profiles such bold-faced names as South Bend, Ind., mayor and presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and New York City congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as local leaders, including Charlotte, N.C., city council member Braxton Winston, who channeled his anger over police shootings into a political career, and Massachusetts state senator Eric Lesser, a former White House aide under President Obama. The stories of these young men and women are framed by the issues and events that have shaped their generation, from the Columbine massacre through 9/11 to rising student debt and the advent of social media. Alter is an exceptional storyteller, whether focusing on Buttigieg’s early struggles to accept his sexuality or Texas congressman Dan Crenshaw’s recovery after stepping on an IED in Afghanistan, and though her progressive views come through, she celebrates the accomplishments of such conservatives as Crenshaw and New York representative Elise Stefanik, who became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress in 2014 (she lost the title to Ocasio-Cortez in 2018). This nuanced and comprehensive guide does an admirable job of illuminating the next generation of political leaders and the issues that drive them. Agent: Allison Hunter, Janklow & Nesbit. (Feb.)