Individuals who swam against the tide of history

Visionary Women How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters Changed Our World Andrea Barnet Ecco, $29.99

Barnet examines a quartet of trailblazing, progressive female outsiders, not linked by friendship, age or issue, and artfully argues that they catalyzed shifts in consciousness that transformed the culture. Through their inf luential books — Carson’s “Silent Spring,” Jacobs’ “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” Goodall’s “My Friends the Wild Chimpanzees” — and Waters’ restaurant, Chez Panisse, these idealistic women ignited powerful social movements that may have seemed quite different from one another but were actually aligned. These four women shared a growing awareness of the interconnectedness of the living world, and Barnet captures their vitality and passion. She also reminds us that the power of one voice can be transformative, because change begins “with the local, the particular, and the passionately observed.”

The Justice of Contradictions Antonin Scalia and the Politics of Disruption Richard L. Hasen Yale University Press, $30

In his fascinating new book, Hasen contends with the legacy of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016, and argues that Scalia’s conservative libertarian ideology continues through his acolytes, such as Justice Neil Gorsuch, who are filling — and polarizing — the judiciary. Hasen, a UC Irvine law professor, argues that despite Scalia’s personal charm, his cutting and often sarcastic writings, in which he attacked the intelligence and motives of his colleagues, undermined civil discourse between judges and lawyers. Scalia, Hasen convincingly argues, disrupted the court in the same way Donald Trump is disrupting the presidency, and he reshaped the judiciary with straight-talking, anti-elitist populism that is not intellectually consistent but rather a reflection of his own ideological preferences.

Patriot Number One American Dreams in Chinatown Lauren Hilgers Crown, $27

In her deeply affecting and intimate narrative, journalist Hilgers focuses on dissident Zhuang Liehong, who led a rebellion in his tiny village on the southern coast of China, and his wife, Little Yan, who feared arrest and fled the country. Hilgers first met Zhuang at his tea shop in China and she artfully chronicles the couple’s relocation to Flushing, Queens, where they rented a room, found menial jobs and linked up with like-minded dissidents. Unlike traditional immigration stories of acculturation and assimilation, in this one Hilgers draws on her years in China and fully conveys the complexity of dreamy Zhuang and pragmatic Little Yan as they live in a kind of exile, transported from the land of their birth and yet never fully part of their new one.

In the Shadow of Statues A White Southerner Confronts History Mitch Landrieu Viking, $25

“These statues were not honoring history, or heroes,” writes New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu about the four Confederate monuments, including a statue of Robert E. Lee, that he decided to remove in May 2017. In his elegantly written memoir, Landrieu reckons with his own upbringing and his realization that these monuments distorted history by buttressing a myth of gallant Southern chivalry that obscured the “terror tactics” that completely deprived African Americans of fundamental rights and led to extreme inequality. Amid a glut of self-aggrandizing autobiographies by politicians, Landrieu’s powerful plea for racial justice stands out for its honesty, moral clarity and genuine faith in the possibility of change.

Russian Roulette The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump Michael Isikoff and David Corn Twelve, $30

Even for those who have been carefully following Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, this book provides invaluable perspective on the ongoing investigation. Isikoff, the chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo! News, and Corn, Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones magazine, skillfully detail how the Trump administration’s back channels to Russia developed and how the Putin-Trump “bromance” evolved. Full of juicy details involving everything from the Miss Universe pageant and the Steele dossier to the Seychelles meeting, “Russian Roulette” offers a behind-the-scenes look at the dark figures, shady financial transactions, and espionage — and a scorecard for the scandal.