I think Michael Lewis is one of the best writers of non-fiction books. I’ve read a number of his books, including Liar’s Poker, The New New Thing, Going Infinite, The Premonition, and The Big Short.
In this case, Lewis is the author of two of the eight chapters in this book and the editor of the other six, written by six different writers. The subtitle of the book is The Untold Story of Public Service.
When Trump won the election in 2016, he fired 500 people on his transition team and told Chris Christie that the two of them would figure it out. During confirmation hearings, it transpired that most of the Trump appointees had no idea what their departments did.
The outgoing Obama administration had produced thorough and up-to-date summaries of every federal government department. While no one in the Trump administration read the books or listened to the briefings, Lewis did. Lewis published a book about what he learned titled The Fifth Risk. I have not read that one yet.
Lewis engaged several other writers to dive into the good work done in the federal government. They all came up with the same thing, there is (or was) great work being done within the government. The people they found were devoted civil servants who don’t seek attention and are lousy at drawing attention to themselves or taking credit.
With seven different writers, the chapters vary in approach and quality, although all are good stories. I think the two chapters by Lewis are the best of the bunch.
One of Lewis’s stories is The Canary, about a guy named Christoher Mark of the Department of Labor. He has almost single-handedly figured out how to keep coal mines safe. He was able to calculate how much coal could be removed and how much had to stay in order to support the ceilings in the mines. Before this, the ceilings would collapse, and it was just considered a part of doing business.
Mark’s father was a Princeton University civil engineering professor. The father’s work was mostly around the supporting structures in gothic cathedrals. The son’s work ended up becoming similar, but for coal mines. And the route to get there was very circuitous. (I also liked a reference to a mine in West Virginia called Lightfoot No. 1.)
Mark’s work was for the federal government, but no one told him what to do, because no one understood what needed to be done. He figured it out and did it. His books on mine safety are now the standard used around the world.
The chapter titled The Sentinel is written by Casey Cap and is about Ronald Walters of the National Cemetery Administration. Like most of the stories, few are even aware of the departments of the federal government that these people work for.
The National Cemetery Administration tends to the cemeteries and graves within those cemeteries. They are kept in immaculate condition, to honor those veterans buried there.
But their work goes much further. They try to retrieve and identify remains from foreign wars, often going back decades. They serve the families of the dead, helping them find the grave of their family member.
An organization that rates all entities, public or private, and publishes the American Customer Satisfaction Index, has rated the National Cemetery Administration as the highest rated entity they have ever judged. And this happens year after year.
Ronald Walters has headed this agency for years, setting the tone of the organization. But like any level five leader, he only wants to talk about the achievements of those who work for him.
There is a chapter on a group at NSA trying to discover evidence of life on another planet. Their efforts cover a lot of different initiatives, most of them cutting edge science that doesn’t lead to profit, so the private sector doesn’t have interest in it. The general belief is that evidence of life elsewhere will be found within the next 25 years.
A chapter titled The Number is a story about the anonymous Department of Labor employees who calculate the Consumer Price Index at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. No names are mentioned. But it is an amazing story of the huge number of statistics provided by the Bureau, the Consumer Price Index simply being the best known.
The Cyber Sleuth is about Jarod Koopman, an IRS employee in charge of cybercrimes. With the popularity of cryptocurrency, he has a lot to do. The story tells about how Koopman joined the IRS and then how he was placed in charge of cybercrimes. There are some pretty interesting examples of how they have caught cybercriminals. They mainly work via computers but also carry guns and execute warrants.
There is more, but hopefully this is enough to convince you that this is a book that is timely and worth your time reading.
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