Susan Crawford tells the story of a city that has played a central role in America’s painful racial history for centuries and now, as the waters rise, stands at the intersection of climate and race.

A bellwether for other towns and cities, Charleston is emblematic of vast portions of the American coast, with a future of inundation juxtaposed against little planning to ensure a thriving future for all residents.

All true climate-change stories are about the abuse of power. Knowing this, Crawford makes a plea for climate justice in “Charleston,” her sweeping case study of the South Carolina city.

“Her premise is that this imperiled place is a bellwether for the rest of the coastal US, where government at every level is failing to prepare for the catastrophic effects of sea level rise and increasingly severe storms, which are threatening lives and causing billions of dollars in damage,” said Emily Raboteau in a review for The New York Times.

“Charleston” joins a platoon of important books published in the last few years that, each in its own way, have sounded the same alarm, said Raboteau.