Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service Hardcover – March 18, 2025

"Who Is Government" would be an excellent book regardless of when it was published. Michael Lewis not only wrote two excellent chapters for the book, but he also selected six authors who added their voices to the accurate depiction of how selfless public servants improve our lives. What makes the book not just excellent but also vital to the health of Civics in the US is the timing of its publication, though. "Who is Government" is a crucial shield against the vilification of career government officials (and the contempt towards public service as an ethos) that has grown louder and infected more than 70 million Americans since Trump started his baseless accusations about "The Deep State."I read and re-read Lewis' previous assessment of the strong service ethic in the Federal Government (and how it was dismissed and neglected by the first Trump Administration). "The Fifth Risk" left me wondering about how many more examples there would be of public servants working hard on behalf of their fellow citizens while trying to stay as far away as possible from the spotlight. I'm happy to report that "Who Is Government" delivers a near-perfect answer to my question.The only sad reaction this book elicits is indirect, and it got worse as I read the negative reviews here. Chances are that those who need to understand how the Federal Government meets their needs far better than a self-aggrandizing POTUS (and his Apartheid Nepobaby sidekick) ever could will never assess "Who Is Government" with intellectual honesty, or read it at all. Ultimately, we are not talking about a fight between Democrats and Republicans, or between liberals and conservatives. This is a fight between knowledge and willful ignorance. That the latter seem to be winning bothers me less than how irreparable the consequences of their temporary victory might be for the US and for the rest of the world.In view of this, I choose the same path Lewis and his co-authors chose. Shine a light on the valuable work good people do, explain as clearly as possible that work helps even those that attack it without understanding it, and hope that we'l be able to convince some of them that they were wrong.

Michael Lewis needs no introduction. He is one of the most versatile and enjoyable writers on this planet. He has edited with the help of some very talented writers a series of case studies involving the often unheralded work of government workers who seek no praise. But they get the job done without fanfare. One example is the finding of a possible cure for a one celled organism called Balamuthia mandrillaris, a free wheeling amoeba that has stumped doctors for years when it attacks the brain. Lewis has the unique ability to make deep science fascinating. It is also reassuring that there are workers in public service who engage in a non-political way and help save lives by their diligence.

One of the best stories of this book was the one about IRS criminal investigators doing immensely valuable but unappreciated work. Today, I read:"A top priority for the [Trump] administration is reassigning IRS criminal investigators to do immigration-related investigations to support DHS in border enforcement work. The discussions have also included the possibility of moving the IRS criminal investigations agency to be part of the Treasury, the person familiar with the matter said."They have save the US billions of dollars. What does Musk have to say about this?

Following up on his earlier book The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis collects a series of profiles of federal employees, highlighting not just the work they do but who they are as people, and their motives for entering public service. At a time when federal employees are being treated as disposable and an impediment toward 'progress' (for whom, and to what aim?) these stories remind us that the numbers being trimmed from the federal workforce are human beings doing work that is of vital importance, even if most of us don't think about it.

A perfect book for today! The topic of civil servants fills newspaper headlines from coast to coast. Politicians sling derogatory terms like "deep state" to describe the government and faceless civil servants. These politicians who love to arbitrarily cut government here and there also try to lay the nation's troubles at the feet of the deep state.This book puts a face on the deep state. You can see how these individuals in various places outside of D.C. and buried 5 or 6 layers deep in an organizational chart, regularly produce enormous benefits for our nation. They work hard to do right in a broken system that Congress built. I hope everyone gets a chance to read this and see that people in the government does have a role to play in our nation.

Particularly at this moment in history when government agencies and workers are under attack and they are being treated as useless sponges on the taxpaying public, this book celebrates the dedicated, virtually unknown people who daily perform valuable services that enhance, and frequently save our lives. I read this book in two days, racing from one fascinating profile to the next. I've bought copies for family, friends and colleagues and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in wide-ranging stories of government, not becoming great again so much as having quietly been magnificent all along.

Easy read with a hopeful theme. It should be required reading for anyone making decisions on the structure of government. It did leave me with a bit of saddness when read in today's environment (early 2025) given it represented what can be done when the collective we decide to do good. It would be nice to return to that time and work together to create the world we want to live in.