About the book
Michael Lewis invited a group of his favorite writers each to pick a person with an interesting government job and profile them, and their essays make up the collection. The subjects are federal employees doing behind-the-scenes work: a one-time coal miner who has devoted himself to safer mine roofs, an IRS agent whose work reads like a crime thriller, and the manager credited with turning the National Cemetery Administration into the country's best-run organization, public or private. Others digitize archives, chase cybercriminals or discover new planets. Lewis presents government as a shared resource for society's biggest problems, made up of people whose work can be consequential. The public servants it profiles share a reluctance to take credit.
Barack Obama picked it as one of his favorite books of summer 2025, a timely reminder of the quiet skill and dedication of the people who keep the country running.
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This book has 1 recommendation
Barack Obama (Former USA President)
A timely reminder of the quiet dedication and skill of the people who work every day to make this country work.
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