“I am certain that my family - my grandmother, mother and myself - had a credit score of zero when we arrived in 1976. There were no credit cards in the Soviet Union, and we didn't have any money.”

Russian-born American author and military historian

Max Boot is a Russian-born American author, editorial writer, lecturer, and military historian. He became known for his commentary and books on history and national security, and he has also written widely for major newspapers and magazines. He worked as a writer and editor at The Christian Science Monitor and later at The Wall Street Journal in the 1990s. He is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a contributor to The Washington Post. His books include military history and biography, including works on Edward Lansdale and Ronald Reagan, as well as a book reflecting on his political shift after the 2016 U.S. presidential election.