Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.33 AVERAGE
4.33 AVERAGE
informative
informative
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
Great writers highlighting undervalued government workers.
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
inspiring
This was a deeply hopeful book. Lewis and his co-authors explore the lives and careers of seven federal government employees (and also one number developed by the federal government, the CPI). While we often think of “federal employees” as being dull bureaucrats, middle-managers who move numbers around and don’t do anything of great worth, the people featured in this book are some of the most remarkably people you’ve never heard of. Among the people featured are an engineer who figured out how to prevent coal mine collapses, the head of the national cemetery administration (one of the most respected organizations in the federal government), an IRS cybercrime investigator whose work led to the arrests of terrorists and pedophiles, and an FDA employee who created a database for doctors to write up case studies of their treatments of rare diseases. Each of them insists that they did nothing special on their own, but reading their stories makes you think, “but that’s utterly remarkable! You should get ALL the awards!” I feel like in the last few months, Americans have gotten a much better sense of what all the government employees fired by the Trump administration and DOGE actually do, and this book just goes further in the same direction, revealing even more things you had no idea that people in the federal government were doing. I hope they do a follow-up with even more profiles.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
medium-paced