Nancy Pelosi's Big Stick: An insider account of the Californian's first four years as House speaker reveals how she prodded Washington's more timid male leaders to do big things.

• Author: Bordewich, Jean Parvin
• Position: John A. Lawrence's "Arc of Power: Inside Nancy Pelosi's Speakership, 2005-2010"

Arc of Power: Inside Nancy Pelosi's Speakership, 2005-2010

by John A. Lawrence

University of Kansas Press, 384 pp.

In September 2008, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was hearing worrisome rumblings of a possible run on the San Francisco Federal Reserve. House and Senate Democrats had held hearings months before on the growing subprime mortgage crisis, but no bills had moved, the banking industry was gleefully riding the wave of booming profits, and Republicans in Congress and the George W. Bush administration were ignoring signs of trouble. On the morning of September 18, Pelosi spoke with her economic advisers, who confirmed that conditions were deteriorating fast. "The markets are frozen up," one said. "No one wants to lend to anyone. All that can happen now is an implosion."

Pelosi immediately called Henry Paulson, treasury secretary to Bush, requesting a meeting the next morning, a Friday. "Tomorrow will be too late," Paulson said. "If we don't act now, we won't have an economy by Monday." Alarmed, Pelosi asked, "If things are this bad, why aren't you calling me?" Paulson answered, "The White House wouldn't let us. They were saving the problem for the next president."

John A. Lawrence, who served for eight years as Pelosi's chief of staff, recounts many similar stories in his masterful book, Arc of Power. They reveal in finegrained detail how Congress enacted a raft of monumental legislation during the four years of Pelosi's first turn as speaker, 2007 to 2011. She succeeded under both divided government and unified Democratic control of the House, Senate, and presidency. Lawrence persuasively argues that her speakership really mattered-- not because she was the first woman in the role, but because in a stunning number of instances she was the seminal figure pushing Congress and the White House to act boldly and courageously on behalf of the larger public interest. When other leaders sat on their hands, she moved decisively. When Republicans obstructed, she persisted. When the Obama White House or the Senate considered opting for incremental changes on health care, she insisted they go big. And when her Democratic members balked, she cajoled and scolded to bring them along. "Some of you are here to make a beautiful pate," she once chided progressives in her caucus, "but we're making sausage most of the time."

Republicans criticized her as "very partisan," but she was often the first to cross the aisle, as when she called Paulson. Like other...