Summary: Renewal by Anne-Marie Slaughter

From Crisis to Transformation in Our Lives, Work, and Politics. Embark on a transformative journey with Anne-Marie Slaughter’s ‘Renewal’, a compelling narrative that challenges and inspires. Discover the power of radical honesty and resilience in the face of crisis.

Continue reading to uncover the profound insights and personal stories that make ‘Renewal’ a must-read for anyone seeking to navigate the complexities of modern life and politics.

Genres

Nonfiction, Politics, Business, Self-Help, Sociology, Memoir, Leadership, Personal Development, American Studies, Social Science

‘Renewal’ is Anne-Marie Slaughter’s candid exploration of personal and national transformation. She intertwines her personal journey with broader social challenges, reflecting on America’s identity crisis and the need for honest self-assessment. Slaughter advocates for embracing risk, resilience, and interdependence, offering a blueprint for individual and collective progress.

Review

Anne-Marie Slaughter’s ‘Renewal’ is an insightful and thought-provoking read. It resonates with its audience through personal anecdotes and rigorous social science research. The book serves as a beacon of hope, suggesting that renewal is within reach if we are willing to adopt a new perspective and commit to change. Its relevance extends beyond the American context, making it a valuable resource for global citizens and leaders alike.

Recommendation

Anne-Marie Slaughter, a US State Department veteran, academician, think-tank president and prolific author, describes her odyssey of personal renewal after a highly publicized leadership stumble almost ruined her career. She equates the stages of her journey with what she sees as necessary national change for Americans and America. She defines her position of “privilege,” the flaws in her prior thinking and the lessons she learned supporting underrepresented women. Slaughter tells a compelling story as she shares her vision of a renewed America that fosters increased social support, inclusion, grace, and the voluntary ceding of power and opportunity from those who currently have it.

Take-Aways

• Anne-Marie Slaughter’s journey of renewal inspired her to delve into America’s need for renewal.
• The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence; Americans must act to maintain its promise.
• Renewal could even the playing field for opportunity for all Americans.
• Power-sharing improves leadership.
• “Rugged individualism” requires interdependence.
• Americans must think big about their future and the future of the country.
• A future of greater plurality and multiple perspectives must include the grace to give and forgive.

Summary

Anne-Marie Slaughter’s journey of renewal inspired her to delve into America’s need for renewal.

Anne-Marie Slaughter’s journey of renewal – which inspires her call for an American national renewal – began during what she describes as “the worst day of my professional life.” As CEO of the nonprofit think tank New America, Slaughter fired several staff members. They then publicly accused her of pandering to the demands of the organization’s funders. The incident created a media uproar, threatening the livelihoods of more than 100 people who worked at New America, including Slaughter.

While Slaughter acknowledges her advantages as a self-described “privileged,” professional white woman, and she recognizes that many people have faced far worse crises and problems, these events propelled her on an odyssey of brutally honest self-examination, leading to her process of personal renewal.

Slaughter started with a call to then-Atlantic Media chairman David Bradley, who served on her board. His advice was to “run toward the criticism.” He didn’t comfort her by telling her everything would be fine. Instead, Bradley stressed that even if only a fraction of the criticism were true, she should recognize that truth and confront the accusations head-on.

“The road to better leadership requires understanding that good intentions are never enough.”

Over the years since that time, Slaughter finds she has become a more aware, inclusive leader. She changed by accepting the discomfort of asking for raw feedback. She contacted every board member and many of her employees and colleagues to request their honest opinions of her leadership. She communicated with her mentors, including the president of Princeton University, whom she considered a friend. Slaughter asked why Princeton had not offered her the position of interim dean when it became vacant, since she was a logical successor. She learned that the decision-makers had deemed her leadership style too selfish, too much focused on herself and not enough on her team members. Coming from trusted sources, this feedback hit home.

Slaughter believes her experience of confronting criticism and changing herself after facing hard truths can serve as a metaphor for the United States.

The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence; Americans must act to maintain its promise.

The United States is threatened by hatred, disinformation, partisan divisions and numerous challenges. But by closely examining the past and envisioning a new and better future – “looking backward and forward at the same time” – Americans can discover a path to renewal for their nation. If people engage in this introspection in sufficient numbers, Slaughter believes, they could fuel this crucial renewal.

Individual Americans should embark on a path of personal and national renewal honoring the strengths of their country’s history while addressing its mistakes and flaws, reckoning with its past, and envisioning a more inclusive future. This endeavor, built on individual effort and culminating in the impact of multitudes of participants, could define the next 250 years of American life.

To move forward, Americans – especially white Americans – must acknowledge and accept the past and current experiences of immigrants and Americans who are not white males as crucial to US history. A new American history must recount the nation’s ideals and progress as well as its injustices and shame. This must include, for instance, the complete history of figures such as Thomas Jefferson, who served as president, wrote the Declaration of Independence and founded the University of Virginia, but who also built his life, career and home around the labor and misery of the people he enslaved.

“True national renewal will require that Americans, all Americans, affirm a civic covenant to make the great principles of the Declaration of Independence real and universal.”

Slaughter explains that most Americans heard a narrative of national history while they were growing up that predominantly focused on the experiences of white people. And even that was a sanitized version. As American society becomes more diverse – encompassing African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans – all Americans must be willing to embrace the United States’ authentic history.

For example, Washington’s National Museum of African American History and Culture shows visitors a history that differs from the exhibits in the National Museum of American History – providing a window into America’s possible reconciliation and renewal. Accepting such diverse experiences will make individual Americans and their nation stronger, more resilient and more confident.

Renewal could even the playing field for opportunity for all Americans.

Taking big risks in life, such as leaving a secure job to start a business, requires courage. But such personal moves usually come down to an assessment of costs and benefits. For example, upper-middle-class young, white people more often quit college to launch start-ups than do Black students from single-parent households. If they fail, the former have safety nets, while the latter might find themselves homeless.

“Failure is the path to learning. But what if you have no savings and no parents to bail you out?”

Women with caregiving roles who worry about their children’s needs face a similar lack of options, as do workers whose health coverage and protection against financial calamity depend on their continued employment.

An American renewal must address these inequalities and the absence of social support for many citizens. Universal health coverage, portable benefits workers could take from job to job, more options for caregivers, and universal early childhood education would give millions more Americans the opportunity to take chances and pursue their dreams. This would unleash passionate hard work and creativity, leading to innovation and creating more jobs.

Power-sharing improves leadership.

As a condition of keeping her job, Slaughter’s board required her to work with a leadership coach. Having lectured about leadership for years, she now learned how to manifest what she had long told others they should do. She had practiced collegial – but hierarchical – leadership throughout her career.

First, she came to embrace leading from the center of a network rather than from the top of a pyramid. Then she realized that even this was insufficient, that even a network leaves some people on the edges – often, the most underrepresented staff members in the organization. Slaughter saw that she needed to heed their voices.

Slaughter learned to lead “from the center and the edge.” This required broad input and openness to being challenged by her employees. She had to develop the patience to wait for, listen to and consider diverse perspectives before taking action. Slaughter’s new thinking led her to elevate the think-tank’s executive vice president to president and COO, effectively sharing power with her as the head of New America. This allowed Slaughter to spend more time with the people in the organization, enabling her to walk the halls, ask questions and receive advice.

“The extra time it takes to run an idea by others or ensure that the right people are in the loop is actually time spent weaving a web of inclusion and accountability.”

Slaughter’s increased attentiveness inspired more ideas, feedback and challenges, as well as an improved shared commitment and sense of mission among her team.

For a metaphor, Slaughter turns to the US Constitution, which divides power among the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government. She finds that the lack of central power in movements such as Black Lives Matter and the Arab Spring also reflects a split-authority structure. Nelson Mandela might be the best example of leading collectively and sharing power, but leaders with his character don’t emerge often. Thus, the push for a more pluralistic United States – one in which more diverse voices drive policy and change – must come from individual Americans themselves.

“Rugged individualism” requires interdependence.

The pioneers who settled in the American West couldn’t have succeeded as individuals or as separate families. Women banded together, and families formed caravans as they traveled. Most settled on farms near one another to offer mutual support and protection. When French intellectual Alexis de Tocqueville toured the United States from 1831 to 1832, he observed that Americans were self-reliant in taking responsibility for their lives. Yet he also found that they worked in highly associative ways to realize their goals: They were both independent and interdependent.

“The reciprocal ties of family, however we define it, and community, wherever we find it, is as fundamental an element of the American character as individual striving.”

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. fueled the US civil rights movement by calling Black and white people together to march toward a shared destiny. He argued that an injustice to one American is an injustice to all Americans. King proposed a “declaration of interdependence” that would bind Americans together.

By telling more stories from more diverse American perspectives, more Americans could learn of the incredible resilience of formerly enslaved people, immigrants, Native Americans, women, and others. Sharing their stories strengthens the character and resolve of individual Americans and the United States.

Americans must think big about their future and the future of the country.

Winning small battles, such as an increase in the minimum wage, feels good, but people want to accomplish bigger goals. For example, imagine electoral reform that would prevent gerrymandering and reduce the need for candidates to raise funds constantly, and that would ensure a meaningful vote for all eligible voters and help create a multiparty system that could represent more people. Bigger goals have failed before succeeding, such as extending the right to vote to African Americans and women.

“Americans know that our system is broken. Yet to remove any of these obstacles requires legislation that cannot pass precisely because our system is broken.”

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they would like to start a business; imagine a wider and higher social safety net that would permit them to do so. Consider a six-hour workday that would allow people more time to vest in their families and communities, the time to learn and create. Capitalism might change to favor two-pronged firms that seek not just profits but also community improvement. Imagine a capitalism that acknowledges whole human beings rather than only “homo economicus,” an ideal – but nonexistent – capitalist consumer.

Imagine a 2026 quarter-millennial celebration of America that honors not only the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence but 56 additional founders, men and women of all races, who helped establish the new nation. Imagine a woman president using the occasion to announce a new “Family Security Act” featuring paid family leave, universal child care, and a slew of community coaches, tutors and trainers who help people achieve their dreams. Imagine young Americans looking forward to performing a year of national service to honor the nation and demonstrate their patriotism.

A future of greater plurality and multiple perspectives must include the grace to give and forgive.

People must offer understanding and patience to those who erred in the past and who are working to learn and improve. This includes extending forgiveness to people who may now cringe at the beliefs they once held and the things they once did.

“Becoming whole requires at least a majority of Americans to see our past, including many of our own ancestors, differently.”

The white population will become a minority in the United States by about 2040. These concessions of understanding and power could move the nation toward a plurality that values diversity. This need not alarm members of the current majority who fear the loss of their culture or country. Acts of protest, such as those by football player Colin Kaepernick or members of Black Lives Matter, are acts of patriotism and expressions of love for a country they yearn to improve.

“The greatest faith, and thus the greatest love of country, is displayed by those Americans who believe in the country and fight to set it right even when it consistently fails them.”

America needs older, white, mainstream people to engage with younger generations and people of different races and backgrounds. Progress depends in part on people’s willingness to extend grace for their centuries of oppression. Those in power must also extend grace, showing a willingness to share authority or step aside to enable others to rise.

About the Author

Anne-Marie Slaughter, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, leads the nonprofit think tank New America. She was the first woman to serve as the US State Department’s policy planning director. She is also the author of Unfinished Business: Women, Men, Work, Family, The Chessboard and the Web: Strategies of Connection in a Networked World; The Idea that Is America: Keeping Faith with Our Values in a Dangerous World; and A New World Order.