By Susan Page

Hachette Book Group, New York, 448 pages, $32.50

As Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi views herself as a "troublemaker with a gavel." In her new biography of Pelosi, author Susan Page posits that, as Speaker, Pelosi has not only been the most powerful woman in the history of U.S. politics, but has also been the most consequential Speaker since Sam Rayburn, who served three influential stints in the post (1940-47; 1949-53; and 1955-61).  These superlatives, however, do not do justice to the subject. Pelosi is transformational because she provides a glimpse of the future, in which women govern and lead.