Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service

by Michael Lewis (Editor), Casey Cep (Contributor), Dave Eggers (Contributor)

Who works for the government and what do they do? A timely and absorbing civics lessons from an all-star team of writers and storytellers.

The government is a vast, complex system that Americans pay for, rebel against, rely upon, dismiss, and celebrate. It’s also our shared resource for addressing the biggest problems of society. And it’s made up of people, mostly unrecognized and uncelebrated, doing work that can be deeply consequential and beneficial to everyone.

    Michael Lewis invited his favorite writers to find someone doing an interesting job for the government and write about them. The stories they found are unexpected, riveting, and inspiring, including a former coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse, saving thousands of lives; an IRS agent straight out of a crime thriller; and the manager who made the National Cemetery Administration the best-run organization, public or private, in the entire country. Each essay shines a spotlight on the essential behind-the-scenes work of exemplary federal employees.

    Whether they’re digitizing archives, chasing down cybercriminals, or discovering new planets, these workers are committed to their work and universally reluctant to take credit. The vivid profiles in On Duty blow up the stereotype of the irrelevant bureaucrat. They show how the essential business of government makes our lives possible, and how much it matters.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Essays, Audiobook, Government, Biography

272 pages, Hardcover

First published March 18, 2025

About the author

Michael Monroe Lewis is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to Vanity Fair since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. He is known for his nonfiction work, particularly his coverage of financial crises and behavioral finance.
Lewis was born in New Orleans and attended Princeton University, from which he graduated with a degree in art history. After attending the London School of Economics, he began a career on Wall Street during the 1980s as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers. The experience prompted him to write his first book, Liar's Poker (1989). Fourteen years later, Lewis wrote Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (2003), in which he investigated the success of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics. His 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game was his first to be adapted into a film, The Blind Side (2009). In 2010, he released The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. The film adaptation of Moneyball was released in 2011, followed by The Big Short in 2015.
Lewis's books have won two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes and several have reached number one on the New York Times Bestsellers Lists, including his most recent book, Going Infinite (2023).

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book feels like it was written yesterday in that it makes reference to all the chaos of the current presidency. I don't really understand how this book got pulled together as fast as it did. There was clearly research done. Sure, everyone had a different chapter and a different agency or person(s) to profile, but still. I am impressed.

The book goes through eight people and/or agencies that make up the US federal government and highlight the work they do - work that most of the country neither ever thinks about nor understands. It was lovely to learn about some of these agencies and even lovelier to go through the work they do on behalf of all of us. Some of these are lofty achievements and achievements in progress (literally), while others are stories about the humblest individuals who might otherwise go through life unnoticed. The two chapters that really captured my attention were the one of Ronald Walters of the National Cemetary Administration, who made sure every veteran had the option to be buried or cremated honorably, and John Koopman of the Internal Revenue Service, who is a real-life cyber superhero.

I'm grateful to all those who choose to lead lives of civil service. They are often underpaid and almost always underappreciated. The work they do is important, and today, I'm particularly grateful for Pamela Wright of the National Archives, who will make sure history is digitized and preserved. (Having just finished The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, I cannot stop thinking about the censorship, erasure, and rewriting of history MAGA is trying so hard to execute.)

Fast read. Highly recommend. A bit of uplifting sunshine during dark days.

[Traci Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so tender and heartwarming and lovely. I was surprised and charmed by how earnest it was. I also felt like I learned a lot. I really appreciated the variety of subjects and writerly styles. It was a great length.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't wait to read this book. I read Lewis' 2018 book, Fifth Risk, describing Trumps' ignorance of government agencies and its consequences. If more citizens read these books there would be a better understanding of our government and even more outrage over what the Trump administration is currently doing. I thought I was informed but I learned so much about these agencies, their dedicated employees and contributions to our daily life.

[Nicole Tin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I put a lot of trust in the authors and editors I read. And so I appreciate the journalistic integrity in profiling government "bureaucrats" without sensationalizing the work, or trying to extrapolate an unnecessary theme (read: Gladwell). Instead, Lewis removes the cloud cover that seems to shroud the rather interesting and vital things being done.

Maybe this is saliency bias talking, but I loved most Michael Lewis's sections. ‘The Canary’ profiles a man who rejected higher education to work in a mine, went back to grad school, and researched improved mine interior structural safety. Once in government, he was able to set standards for mine safety and inspection, completely eliminating roof collapse as a cause of death. True to the prologue, these stories felt truly underreported yet critically important. They not only explored why certain government functions exist but also examined how solutions in these systems emerge. This is why I enjoy reading books, because it is not constrained to audience metrics, airtime, and enjoys as much thought/research as the author will invest.

Some personal thoughts.
I've always felt a strong sense of duty? service? due in no small part to my parents, who are both public service workers. Now, working a corporate job, I realize I was raised in a house where corporate interests, stock prices, "climbing a ladder" had no real foothold. As Lewis put it, my parents found a niche, their cause, and devoted their lives to it.
There's no grand thesis in this part of the review– just that my dad was a fire lieutenant and my mom a water quality supervisor. Being in a for-profit environment I realize whatever trait that compels people to public service, I feel too. Still, I love the work that I get to do, and I try to frame it, especially what I get to publish and open source, as a small step beat forward in “progress”. Still, I often think about working for a nonprofit.

This book has come at an important time. As this Lewis shows, public service is hardly always the paperwork and drudgery that it’s made out to be. We need smart, competent people in all parts of society. I hope this book continues to not only generate enthusiasm for public servants, but also convinces dedicated, unselfish individuals that there’s a place for them. My parents often cite their pension as the number one grab in enticing people out of corporate jobs. The second most would be job stability, but we know now that’s no longer guaranteed.

I'd love for the narrative around public service to change for the better. Assuming there still exists bureaucracy in four years, I’ll continue to rethink my own career.

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book consists of eight essays by seven different authors which feature eight different individuals who are government employees doing remarkable work but in quiet unheralded ways. The subjects were selected over a year ago and this book was published before the second Trump administration began, but the resulting selections seem custom tailored to refute claims of fraud and abuse currently being claimed by Musk and his DOGE crew.

I found the last chapter interesting about the coordination of the knowledge of a discovered treatment for Balamuthia infections. I had read about this story earlier in the news, but Michael Lewis’ human interest approach made the story particularly compelling. This story is a reminder that private pharmaceutical companies can't afford to do research on rare diseases because it results in few sales.

This book can serve as a reminder as to why government is important, and of the thousands of small ways that it shapes and secures our lives for the better. When government works well the benefits are not noticeable because life proceeds smoothly and safely. The current decimation of government employee staffing may lead to future examples of difficulties that can arise when governmental functions are hampered.

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff's book about Trump during his first term, Wolff writes:

Here was an elemental divide: between Trump and career government employees. He could understand politicians, but he was finding it hard to get a handle on these bureaucrat types, their temperament and motives. He couldn't grasp what they wanted. Why would they, or anyone, be a permanent government employee? "They max out at what? Two hundred grand? Tops," he said, expressing something like wonder. (94)

Michael Lewis's Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service answers the question of why people serve in government, and because it has nothing to do with money, the inspiration flooding this collection of essays would probably be lost on Trump.

Public servants prefer anonymity. Their sole interest is in service and solving problems. This anthology of essays by Michael Lewis, Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, John Lanchester, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowell and W. Kamau Bell ranges from stories of fascinating personalities (Christopher Mark of the Dept. of Labor who figured out how to keep mine ceilings from collapsing, saving countless lives; Ronald E. Walters of the National Cemetery Administration who is pure goodness and an inspiration to everybody he works with in his dedication and reverence for people who have given their lives for our freedom), to getting in the weeds of NASA and our economy, to both fascinating personalities and wandering-in-the-weeds exploration (Jarod Koopman of the Internal Revenue Service):

Koopman himself has never considered leaving public service, even though he knows he could be making multitudes more money. "It's not about that. It's about the mission," he says. In the private sector, skills like his could protect an individual business, but at the IRS, he protects everyone. (147-148)" [To give that some context, among other feats, Koopman has broken up and prosecuted child sex trafficking rings and gotten restitution for victims.]

In a wonderful little book called Lasting Contribution: How to Think, Plan, and Act to Accomplish Meaningful Work by businessman Tad Waddington, Waddington tells a story:

A traveler meets three bricklayers and asks each what he's doing. The first mutters, "Working for a buck." The second states, "Making a wall." The third proclaims, "Building a school that will educate children for generations." Each bricklayer is doing the same work, but the work of the third is imbued with more meaning than that of the other two. (93)

All the government workers in Michael Lewis's book, and all the departments in which they work know exactly what they are doing: they are saving lives; they are honoring those who have saved lives; they are discovering where and therefore how we can live with "existential humility;" they are striving within an imperfect system to make things more just and equitable; they are devoting their lives to creating a more perfect union.

In an essay called "The Equalizer" about Pamela Wright, National Archivist at NARA (National Archives and Records Administration), essayist Sarah Vowell quotes Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield, describing his ideal of leadership by quoting Lao Tzu: "A leader is best when the people hardly know he exists. And of that leader, the people will say when his work is done, 'We did this ourselves.'"

Then quoting NARA's Pamela Wright:

"The first time I felt a real sense of government 'of the people, by the people, and for the people' was when we started working with the public. (163)"

This is who the government is, Mr. Trump: people who are mission-driven to help "we the people." They deserve our gratitude and deep respect.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

My, wasn't that affirming of my worldview and consistent with a lifetime of my experiences? Why, yes, it was, and for that reason, I'm glad I read it. And I very much enjoyed it. Then again, I've previously served in multiple federal agencies (in addition to serving in the military), and ... for decades ... I've taught at a school and in a program that prepares professionals to serve (and excel) in (or, at a minimum, work with) government institutions.

And I expect that many others who have served in the government or understand what the government does or appreciate the critical role that (responsible) governance plays in a civilized society will also appreciate it.

It's a good book published at the right time, even if, almost certainly, it's too little and too late to stem the tide as the current administration seeks (for all the wrong reasons) to undo and derail much of what government does.

Unfortunately, I think the odds are incredibly low that the folks who could most benefit from better understanding what our government does (or how civil servants serve the public) will be tempted to read such a book, let alone be open to its powerful message. Alas.

Whether or not you're a habitual Lewis reader, if The Fifth Risk spoke to you, this is a nice companion or sequel, even if it's little more than a repackaged collection of previously published vignettes (mostly by authors I was already familiar with, but not necessarily in this context) or features previously featured elsewhere.

Insider's note: Washington insiders won't be surprised by, but they'll almost certainly appreciate, the nice plugs that Max Stier, of the Partnership for Public Services, receives in the book ... and they're well deserved. But, again, if you already know who Max Stier is, or, for that matter, if you've crossed paths or worked with him, you'll almost certainly enjoy the book (even if it's little more than anecdotes consistent with your prior experience). Which, returning to where I began, can be rather reaffirming....

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's April 7, 2025.

This past weekend, over 1,400 protests were held at state capitols, government buildings, congressional offices, parks, and city halls. Demonstrators are protesting perceived attacks on our democracy, including rights to privacy and to free speech, as well as the indiscriminate cutting of governmental employees and long-standing governmental services.

And while tens of millions of citizens believe in bumper sticker politics like "Drain the swamp," or cheer on those who vow to take a chainsaw to bureaucracy, Michael Lewis does something pretty damn powerful. He publishes a book telling of some of the most amazing accomplishments we've never heard of by people whose names we've also never heard of - lifelong civil servants committed to improving the lives of everyday Americans and to helping build "a more perfect Union."

Included are eight vignettes, two authored by Michael Lewis himself, but all written with the care and context much needed in our current moment.

The Canary By Michael Lewis
"At the height of the Vietnam War, a coal miner was nearly as likely to be killed on the job as an American soldier in uniform was to die in combat, and far more likely to be injured."

In the 20th Century, the leading cause of death for miners who died on the job was falling roofs.

Christopher Mark, a former coal miner himself, dedicated his life to the pursuit of protecting miners. Over the course of several decades, he introduced statistical analysis to aggregated mine incident data (no one had thought to do that?), using the same to develop industry-wide standards to prevent roof collapse in long-walled, underground mines. Largely because of Christopher and his dogged, lifelong professional pursuit (and some software he wrote himself!), not a single miner was killed on the job due to a roof fall in 2016.

Even amidst government shutdowns, Christopher continued to work and visit mines for inspection.

The Sentinel by Casey Cep
The American Customer Satisfaction Index has been the gold standard for measuring customer experience and sentiment for the past thirty years. Across both public and private sectors, there's one entity that scores higher than Costco (85) and Apple (83) out of a possible 100, and that's the National Cemetery Administration (97) under the leadership of Ronald Walters.

The NCA, comprised over ~2,300 employees, buries 140,000 veterans and their family members every year. They also tend to the remembrance of over 4 million veterans, from the Revolutionary War to those in Afghanistan and Iraq, interred in the 150+ national cemeteries across the United States.

Walters, a lifelong civil servant, concerns himself with every detail, down to the lifespan of a backhoe to the best cleaning product for marble headstones. Walters believes the NCA owes those it serves a perfect score.

"We only get one chance to get it right."

The Searchers by Dave Eggers
Did you know there have only been 82 exoplanets (i.e., planets outside of our solar system) ever imaged (i.e., ever seen)? In The Searchers you'll tour NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory where, amongst other groundbreaking discoveries, scientists are working to perfect a technology that would enable us to "see beyond the stars," by obscuring the light emitted by stars to locate the planets yet discovered within their vicinity that may have the potential to support life.

The Number by John Lanchester
There's no single protagonist in this one. Rather, it's an ode to a obscure and, sometimes, politically controversial metric: the Consumer Price Index (CPI), calculated by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Consumer Price Index has, for a century, "described economic reality, shaped political debate and determined the fate of presidents."

The federal government measures and they count. Wages. Illnesses. Crime. Water quality. Infant mortality. Suicide rates. Weather data. Weapons capabilities. These statistical truths support the American thesis that we can reason our way to a more prosperous, more just society.

The CPI is the official measure of inflation, and it is used in several aspects of government, from setting the level of social security payments to eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and tax thresholds. In essence, it measures how much prices have gone up (which, contrary to our current president's social media account, they have - just as they had in the previous administration). Officially, it is "a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by consumers for a representative basket of consumer goods and services."

When you add the CPI to America's unemployment rate, you get the (very real) Economic Discomfort Index (or better named, "misery index"). When the misery index is double digits in an election year, incumbent presidents often lose (as Trump did in 2020) (unless your name is Ronald Reagan). It's worth noting, NOT being in the double digits DOES NOT guarantee reelection (Biden-Harris was at 7.2 in 2024, with 4.3% unemployment and 2.9% inflation). The number is often considered a product of policy, and sometimes luck.

"And yet, it has to be done because otherwise your society is, in economic terms, flying blind. Just as a simple practical point, without the CPI, all those things which need to be adjusted for inflation - half of all federal spending, by some measures - can't be."

The Cyber Sleuth by Geraldine Brooks
Did you know that 3% of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is responsible for criminal investigations?

Enter the most badass IRS Agent you never met, Jarod Koopman, whose recent accomplishments include: rescuing 23 children from rape and assault, seizing 250,000 child abuse videos, arresting 370 pedophiles, and seizing the single largest amount of cryptocurrency supporting terrorist organizations in the Middle East.

The Equalizer by Sarah Vowell
The National Archives was founded in 1934 under Franklin D. Roosevelt and today manages over 13 billion records, including executive branch documents to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and, following Watergate, all presidential records.

The National Archives takes its job very seriously. They won't stand for documents that belong under their responsibility to preserve to be housed in bankers' boxes in the bathroom of some palm tree padded southern palazzo. They're also in the process of digitizing these records (300 million to date and counting!) for the benefit and easy access of all Americans.

The Rookie by W. Kamau Bell
Here's a crazy statistic: only 7% of federal government employees are under the age of 30. Seems like an employer who's destined to have talent shortages in the coming decades, if you asked me.

This is a vignette about one of those under-30s, a recent graduate and current paralegal for the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, working to prevent monopolies and enable competition to drive better outcomes for American consumers.

The Free-Living Bureaucrat by Michael Lewis
This is a rather devastating one to close out Who is Government? and can best be summed up by this 10,000 foot timeline.

Medical researcher discovers a promising treatment for a rare disease called balamuthia.

A hero named Heather who works at the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) invents an app enabling doctors worldwide to enter case studies on treatments for rare diseases.

Heather promotes the app, but since its utilization is not required, traction is limited.

Heather is thanked in a research article by the above-mentioned medical researcher for her support of rare disease treatments.

A little girl in Texas is diagnosed with balamuthia. An amoeba quite literally begins eating her brain. While there are fewer than 200 such cases worldwide, the mortality rate is 95%. Death seems inevitable.

While one of the leading hospitals in America can't determine the treatment options for this young girl, the family happens upon the research article and calls Heather.

Heather clears the use of the emerging treatment, not yet sanctioned in the United States.

Girl survives.

Later, a 4 year-old in California contracts balamuthia. The doctors don't discover the treatment option in time.

The end.

Here's a federal employee who has created a mechanism to save lives by democratizing knowledge in the medical community, if only the medical community would use it.

All in all, I'd recommend anyone seeking to learn more about today's civil servant and why taking the Silicon Valley approach to move-fast-and-break-things is about as reckless as electing a president who swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution but knows nothing about that to which he swears an oath to.

4.25 out of 5

[Dennis McCrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book during the height of the Elon Musk led DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) push, when there was going to be billions of “wasted” dollars saved through their intervention.
NOT!
But what the book did demonstrate (and keep in mind it was written before DOGE had become a reality) were the many selfless public servants who work at the mundane out of the limelight jobs that address the public needs that the private sector finds unprofitable to address with their time and capital. Aside from my critical comment of how ridiculous DOGE really is to the knowledgeable, the paradox of DOGE in this light is paramount. There are many facets of government that are truly irreplaceable.
And this is the core message of this book

[Quo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who Is Government: The Untold Story of Public Service represents a collection of eight profiles, two of them by Michael Lewis, of Americans working in a variety of government positions. All of those profiled are dedicated public servants, people with a sense of mission, though they have been cast by Donald Trump, Mr. Musk & others within the GOP at large as folks who collect a paycheck for little or no meaningful work.


The quality of the profiles varies, with those by Lewis, functioning as the book's editor & driving force, the best of the lot in my opinion. What the book does is to give hope to those of us who feel that a large cadre of American workers are being cashiered as an act of political revenge, with little or no attempt to document the value of the work done or the ability of the workers functioning in a huge array of governmental support roles.

The story of Christopher Mark, son of a Princeton University engineering professor, may be my favorite profile, in part because it has him tell us, "I was never unaware of my outsider status". The younger Mr. Mark, definitely going against the grain, begins by working in a coal mine & ends up, after gaining university degrees, solving the cause of a large number of mine collapses. Due to his efforts, 2016 was the first year without mine deaths due to falling rocks.

At the same time, the younger man comes to terms with his father near the end of the latter's life, while together working on a project. Christopher Mark's father had used modern techniques to study stress in medieval cathedrals, while Christopher studied stress in vertical & horizontal mine supports, using the field of plate tectonics to arrive at his life-saving conclusions.

Elsewhere, we are told by John Lancaster that "the government generates a Niagara of data but statistics always require context and explanation." In so doing, we learn the reason why the Consumer Price Index affects poorer members of American society differently than more affluent Americans. For some, inflation in fuel & food becomes a "Misery Index", while others are able to weather such increased costs.

Another profile illustrates "the dumbing down of America", most evident within media "where 30 second sound bites are now 10 seconds, with a reliance on pseudo-science, superstition and especially a celebration of ignorance". This is said to have led to a "Counter Enlightenment, a new philosophical anti-system."

In taking a glance at the IRS, at least before its members were required to declare loyalty to Donald Trump rather than to America, Geraldine Brooks glances at cryptocurrency and those using it for criminal purposes, often flying "under the radar" and requiring that those involved in the area of cyber-forensics on behalf of the government use new techniques.

Amazingly, this branch of government has recently been substantially decimated. The comment is made that it wasn't Elliot Ness & the FBI that brought Al Capone down but an IRS agent working undercover, infiltrating the mob's organization.

One individual in particular, Jarod Koopman has used his well-developed skills at the IRS to break up & prosecute child sex trafficking rings, while gaining restitution for victims. He comments that :

he has never considered leaving public service, even though he knows he could be making multitudes more money elsewhere. It's not about that, according to Mr. Koopman. It's about the mission. In the private sector, my skills could protect an individual business but at the IRS, the same skills protect everyone.

In yet another profile, someone named Max Stier is labeled the "Mr. Rogers of government", a super-hero of good government who wants a new generation of public service workers. Mr. Stier is CEO of the Partnership for Public Service.


In short, Who Is Government stands as a testament to those countless unheralded men & women in government roles who work tirelessly on behalf of all Americans.

Each profile demonstrates that many who work in a vast mix of governmental roles, including the National Archives, the Center for Disease Control & the Department of Justice are not just faceless bureaucrats but rather individuals who often manage to be both painstakingly diligent at their work and also innovative.

Who Is Government will cause readers to feel uplifted by the work of countless men & women at these and other government agencies, even as many of them have been fired or furloughed.

*Within my review are the images of Michael Lewis and Max Stier.

[Gyalten Lekden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an inspiring reminder that a country is far more than its elected politicians. Countless individuals offer service at all different levels with all sorts of expertise, making life better for everyone, and they often do it selflessly, or at the least without any expectations of fanfare. There are literally millions of federal workers in the USA, many of whom are actively electing not to take the pay raises they could find in the private sector because they value the role their work plays in the overall health of the country and its populace. These essays are tiny portraits into just a handful of such workers/agencies, and more than just serving as a reminder of the dedication many people bring to making the world a better place but also as an inspiration, because they highlight how individuals can have outsized benefits.

The writing is fun and engaging across the board, which is unsurprising considering these essays are not written by political journalists but by writers and artists. The collection feels humanizing and honest, never aiming to coerce or manipulate the reader but to bare a part of America’s actual heart for all to see. The collection is short, I wouldn’t have minded a few additional essays, to be honest, but I do appreciate that when I finished the book I didn’t have any sense of fatigue or repetition, so maybe it is smarter to leave the reader wanting a little more, in that regard. While the brief, to profile an unsung government worker (or department) is broad there still feels like a continuity across the essays, letting the whole be stronger than the sum of its parts.

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

2025's Who Is Government? is a series of essays (most? all?) originally published in the Washington Post under the same series title and edited by well-known nonfiction writer Michael Lewis (who also penned one of the essays, The Canary). The goal of this essay series is several-fold: 1) to illuminate lesser-known areas of public service, 2) to laud the crucial and innovative work done by several individuals in these sectors, and 3) in light of today's political climate, underscore the perils of rampant cuts to federal employment.

I found the essays variably compelling and generally written very sympathetically toward their subjects. The essay highlighting the role of the FDA in investigating new drugs was a good example of this -- while the FDA certainly has its merits, it also has its downfalls, both in what it neglects to do, what it does that it shouldn't do or is legally not authorized to do, and how historically and even currently its motives have been corrupted by industry ties.

Further reading:
Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service by Maryn McKenna - this book is now 20 years old, but the CDC's EIS is also a crucial federal program that was at threat of being cut in early 2025, though this cut appears to have been reversed.

My statistics:
Book 175 for 2025
Book 2101 cumulatively

[Wick Welker · Rating 4 out of 5]

An NPR Podcast

This was Michael Lewis a la carte podcast format of a book of different writers sharing clandestine and under appreciated jobs in the federal government. You'll get anecdotes about some guy obsessed with preventing mining cave ins, a writer waxing geekily about the National Archives and the successes and failures of trying to treat a rare infectious disease. The stories are engrossing and fun and this book definitely helps you appreciate all the thankless and under-the -radar federal jobs out there. This felt exactly like listening to an NPR Radiolab podcast or something. Lewis has entered his "phone it in" phase of his writing career but even then, not a bad book at all.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who is Government : The Untold Story of Public Service (2025) edited by Michael Lewis is a collection of essays about remarkable US Federal government employees. Michael Lewis is one of the finest narrative non-fiction writers in the world. He put the collection together and wrote one of the pieces. The other authors are Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, John Lancaster, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowel and W Kamau Bell. The book works as a companion piece to Lewis’s previous book ‘The Fifth Risk’ which was on a similar theme.

The stories cover people working for NASA, the IRS, The Bureau of Mines, The Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Department of Justice, the National Archives and the National Cemetery Administration. The stories really are very well done and the work is remarkable.

The book makes you realise that government workers really do perform valuable work that can’t be done anywhere else. They are somewhat flashy. In some ways, they don’t highlight the importance of more mundane work that society needs to be done to function. In the modern world, it is crucial to emphasize the real honor in government work. There is significant value in much government work. The more obvious workers for government such as teachers, policeman and medical workers are not featured. They too are also really important, but are not Federal employees.

Who is Government is a very readable, very worthwhile book. Michael Lewis writes superbly as usual and edits the work very well. It’s very much worth the time it takes to read.

[Emmet Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of it is very good. Michael Lewis is a great author and editor. The Dave Eggers piece is great too.

My only gripe with this book is that it almost de facto fails at what it aims to do. You can’t title a book “Who Is Government?” and then fill it with cherry-picked stories about the most non-representative government employees. It’s a little intellectually dishonest in that sense. Is the gun-slinging tattooed guy really representative of IRS employees? Is a story about a DOJ paralegal the best way to convey the importance of that place? There’s just some blatant selection bias that goes into a book like this, and I’m broadly sympathetic to what they tried to do. Many of the pieces are, in fact, really enjoyable reads. But it didn’t really change any of my pre-existing beliefs about any of the governmental branches involved, and if it does change any of yours, you’re too sensitive to outliers.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be required reading in every American civics class. 👏

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an anthology of previously published essays. The editor is Michael Lewis, author of the first and last entries. These essays inform readers about public servants doing important and useful work, in fields not widely known by many US citizens. It is an attempt to publicize examples of the types of services being lost if funding is discontinued. The essays include:

“The Canary” by Michael Lewis - examines how Christopher Mark, a mining engineer, transformed coal mine safety, and connecting his personal story with larger themes about public service and workplace safety.

“The Sentinel” by Casey Cep – outlines the work being done by the National Cemetery Administration (NCA).

“The Searchers” by Dave Eggers - explores the search for planets that might support life, as being conducted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It appears that evidence of extraterrestrial life may likely be found within the next twenty-five years.

“The Number” by John Lanchester – explains the process behind calculating the CPI, why it is important, and how it has been misinterpreted recently.

“The Cyber Sleuth” by Geraldine Brooks - features Jarod Koopman, Executive Director of Cyber and Forensics for the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division, and his agency’s work tracking down formidable criminals through digital means, including rescuing numerous children from sexual exploitation and blocking cryptocurrency intended for terrorist organizations.

“The Equalizer” by Sarah Vowell – focuses on the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and explores how it makes government records accessible to all US citizens.

“The Rookie” by W. Kamau Bell – this essay tells of the experiences of the author’s goddaughter, a young Black woman who works as a paralegal in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

“The Free-Living Bureaucrat” by Michael Lewis relates a family’s battle to save their daughter from a rare disease involving a brain-eating amoeba. There are not enough cases to do the necessary scientific trials to get a drug approved, and pharmaceutical companies do not view it as profitable based on its rarity. Lewis found and interviewed an FDA employee who created a system to help doctors share treatments for rare diseases.

[lys · Rating 4 out of 5]

“My vague sense is that readers of these stories have come away with feelings both of hope (these civic minded people are still among us) and dread (we’re letting something precious slip away).”

“We never ask: Why am I spending another minute of my life reading about and yapping about Donald Trump when I know nothing about the two million or so federal employees and their possibly lifesaving work that the president is intent on eliminating?”

The hope and pride in the U.S. that this essay collection made me feel was an incredibly welcome surprise. I couldn’t recommend this more. A more timely book simply does not exist.

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these essays were incredible—three made me cry. Others were fine but not particularly compelling. Still would overall recommend.

[Amie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is such a refreshing, necessary reminder of what government actually is: people. Real, committed, often unrecognised individuals who quietly keep the wheels turning on everything from national cemeteries to mine safety to space exploration. I found Who Is Government? both uplifting and sobering—uplifting in how it highlights the integrity and care of those working behind the scenes, and sobering in realising how little attention or appreciation they tend to get.

The structure is brilliant—Michael Lewis invited a team of top writers to each profile someone doing fascinating government work, and the result is a series of stories that are vivid, human, and often surprising. One of my favourites was about the former coal miner turned safety expert, whose work has likely saved thousands of lives. Another was the IRS agent whose story felt like it could have come from a crime thriller.

For a book about bureaucracy, this was anything but dry. It was a reminder that government isn’t just a system to critique or fund or ignore—it’s a collective, a resource, and most importantly, a group of people who are trying to make things better.

[Bodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A profile piece on various American Government employees plodding away at interesting tasks and challenges. An interesting insight into things that might not necessarily be known to the general public.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published as a series of (long) op-eds in The Washington Post, this Michael Lewis-edited collection of essays is all about the incredible public servants inside our federal government. Individuals who are driven by purpose and believe in the immense good that government can do but who also want to remain anonymous and promote the collective efforts of their groups and agencies. People who are saving both untold lives and dollars. Who are with little-known organizations and eight levels down within NASA, the Labor Department, the FDA, the IRS, the VA, the National Archives. Each chapter is authored by a different prominent writer and is a compelling narrative about a specific public servant’s life story and work. This book could not have been published at a better time—a time when Elon Musk is running rogue with DOGE, eliminating federal workers’ jobs left and right with little understanding of or care for what exactly so many of these incredible people do for all of us and our country. Inspiring and informative, this collection deserves 4.5 stars—only because the first half is stronger than the latter.

[Daniel Lipsher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uncompelling and largely irrelevant

With the exception of the last chapter, which is a great story but does not make a strong case for the value of the federal government, this is an uncompelling collection of modestly interesting tales. Sorry, but discovering an exoplanet does not prove the value of billions spent in space adventurism. Nor does celebrating what appears to be learned sexuality have any relevance on antitrust law.

I'm no DOGE bro, but these isolated anecdotes fail to validate the authors' thesis that a handful of bureaucrats mean that my tax dollars are well spent.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories on the unsung citizens that serve our country every day, often in the unheralded bowels of the federal government. The profiles include Labor, FDA, Justice, BLS (not a person, but a number), IRS, NASA JPS, National Archives, and the National Cemetery Administration…which may be the best chapter.

Each story is remarkable - I encourage you to read it and be proud of what this country routinely accomplishes.

[Kelsey Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommend !!! So heartwarming to hear the stories of public servants who are trying to make our nation better in their own respective niches. I also like how this reads more like a series of substack/ long form opinion pieces where the authors let you know how they really feel and infuse their personal voices!

[Jarrett Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Who Is Government?” is a timely collection of essays by Michael Lewis, Dave Eggers, and others on overlooked federal bureaucrats—from NASA researchers searching for life in the universe to IRS investigators prosecuting cybercrime—whose dedication, perseverance, and ability to work within the system have made Americans’ lives better in ways I certainly was unaware of. It’s a rare book that can make the story of a federal bureaucrat into a tearjerker, but this book achieves it with Casey Cep’s essay on Ronald E. Walter’s, whose leadership of the National Cemetery Administration (which is responsible for arranging burials and managing cemeteries for those who have served our country) has made it the highest customer-rated organization in the country and in so doing demonstrated our country’s care for those who served and their families.

We will come to regret chasing away talented, passionate, hard-working, and service-minded civil servants like the ones profiled here.

[Liz Hein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This made me so hopeful and also so scared at the same time.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5

The stories about federal government agencies and works from "The Fifth Risk" are stories I still remember since reading the book a few years ago. When all this DOGE crap started happening, my first thought was of those people doing important work that everyone takes for granted -- including Canadians. The extent to which the entire world relies on US federal government workers is astounding. I am terrified of looking up whether all these folks still have jobs. I hope so.

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

With one exception, which is thrown in for political purposes as far as I can tell, this is a series of wonderful, entertaining, sometimes uplifting stories of people who have done fine things in their government jobs. At the moment (March/April 2025) this is disheartening because the government appears to be intentionally torn apart with little concern for what the people being torn away have been doing for the country. But, politics aside, this is informative and I enjoyed reading about this admirable people.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exactly what I needed right now. A few essays are stronger than the rest but all good.