An intimate, fresh perspective on the most powerful woman in American political history, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by award-winning political journalist Molly Ball
An intimate, fresh perspective on the most powerful woman in American political history, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by award-winning political journalist Molly Ball
She’s the iconic leader who puts Donald Trump in his place, the woman with the toughness to take on a lawless president and defend American democracy. Ever since the Democrats took back the House in the 2018 midterm elections, Nancy Pelosi has led the opposition with strategic mastery and inimitable elan. It’s a remarkable comeback for the veteran politician who for years was demonized by the right and taken for granted by many in her own party—even though, as speaker under President Barack Obama, she deserves much of the credit for epochal liberal accomplishments from universal health care to gays in the military. How did a 79-year-old Italian grandmother in four-inch heels become the greatest legislator since LBJ—and how will she manage her greatest challenge yet, impeachment?
Ball’s nuanced, page-turning portrait takes readers inside the life and times of this historic and underappreciated figure. Based on exclusive interviews with the Speaker and deep background reporting, Ball shows Pelosi through a thoroughly modern lens to explain how this extraordinary woman has met her moment.
PRAISE FOR PELOSI
“There's a delicious scene in Pelosi where she chases down a Republican congressman who had disparaged her and shouts, ‘You're an insignificant person,’ at him again and again. Whether taking on a low-level back-bencher in the House or President Trump in the Oval Office, Nancy Pelosi could never be called insignificant, as Molly Ball so revealingly documents in this absorbing book.”
—David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of First in His Class: The Biography of Bill Clinton
“Molly Ball’s Pelosi is the inspirational political book we’ve all been waiting for. In this dark season, Ball shines a light on the nearly heroic Speaker and her unwavering commitment to truth, justice, and well-tailored jackets. This is the definitive biography of an icon.”
—Vanessa Grigoriadis, author of Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus
“An engrossing and deeply reported political biography of an astute and powerful woman. Molly Ball’s lively portrait of Nancy Pelosi, twice Speaker of the House, is packed with sage insights and telling anecdotes. This sparkling new take on Pelosi makes us understand how this ‘San Francisco liberal’—often the only woman in the room—has become America’s most consequential legislator since the days of LBJ.”
—Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer
“A great read about a great woman. Pelosi is timely and valuable, not only for women who will be inspired by her ability to sequence a career from motherhood to national power, but for all Americans who still believe that politics is not only the ‘art of the possible,’ but also a path to lasting progressive change.”
—Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America
“Read this book, not just to understand how Nancy Pelosi operates as Speaker of the House, but to understand HOW she became the first female Speaker in American history. Molly Ball, one of the most perceptive political reporters in the country, takes readers on a journey through Pelosi's formative political experiences, which parallels the transformation of the political process over the last 60 years.”
—Amy Walter, national editor for the Cook Political Report
“Even after years spent covering the House, and three different Speakers, I have a far richer and more intimate understanding of Nancy Pelosi after reading Molly Ball’s masterwork. Molly Ball's achievement with PELOSI is telling us what makes the most powerful woman in American history tick. With that knowledge, we can now examine the Speaker’s every accomplishment—political and personal—in the sweeping, elegant context her legacy demands.”
—Tim Alberta, New York Times bestselling author of American Carnage
Molly Ball is TIME Magazine's national political correspondent and appears regularly as an analyst on NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’s Face the Nation, PBS’s Washington Week, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and NPR. She formerly covered U.S. politics for The Atlantic and Politico. She is the winner of the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize and the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, among others, and lives in Washington, D.C.
