Who is Government?

A timely reminder of the quiet dedication and skill of the people who work every day to make this country work – Barack Obama * President Obama’s 2025 Summer Reads *This book rightly focuses on the quiet heroes who represent public service at its best… Musk’s demolition derby makes this kind of journalism feel, more than ever, like a civic duty… This eye-opening, multifaceted ode to public service therefore feels both urgent and moving – Dorian Lynskey * Guardian *A vivid and important collection of essays that corrects the caricatures and shows the value of public servants… these are vivid stories, identifying unusual and low-profile work requiring great levels of commitment and expertise… these stories refute the suggestion that the only role of public services is to correct markets… public services create good, even great, outcomes for society – Paschal Donohoe * The Irish Times *As a celebration of the quiet heroism of those whose painstaking work is being laidwaste by Elon Musk’s chainsaw, it’s powerful * The FT *Praise for The Fifth Risk * - *Riveting, jaw-dropping, stranger and more terrifying than fiction * Daily Telegraph *Life is what happens between Michael Lewis books. I forgot to breathe while reading The Fifth Risk’ Michael Hofmann * TLS, Books of the Year *Stunning – Josh Glancy * Sunday Times *The characters are riveting, and the drama intense … paints a picture of America being not just pulled apart at the political seams, but in the very fabric of the government itself – Harriet Alexander * Daily Telegraph *Readable and compelling … a horrific catalogue of all the things that can go wrong if a government takes its eye off the ball … We should all be frightened – Brooke Masters * Financial Times *

Michael Lewis’s global bestselling books lift the lid on the biggest stories of our times. They include Flash Boys, a game-changing expose of high-speed scamming; The Big Short, which was made into a hit Oscar-winning film; Liar’s Poker, the book that defined the excesses of the 1980s; and, most recently, The Fifth Risk, revealing what happens when democracy unravels. Michael Lewis was born in New Orleans and educated at Princeton University and the London School of Economics.