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jinny89's review against another edition
3.0
This is a book that is less about Trump and more about how the US federal government works. I'm not American so most of this book is new information for me. I thought it would be about Trump but it's really more about explaining the government and how it is a big deal that Trump doesn't understand or care about how the government works.
For what the book is, it was a good read. I know it sounds like it's kind of boring to read about how the government works but it's not like a textbook or anything like that. It was written really well, in a narrative kind of way, and the author made it simple to understand these hugely complicated departments and systems. Overall, I liked the book.
For what the book is, it was a good read. I know it sounds like it's kind of boring to read about how the government works but it's not like a textbook or anything like that. It was written really well, in a narrative kind of way, and the author made it simple to understand these hugely complicated departments and systems. Overall, I liked the book.
eznark's review against another edition
2.0
The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis' bloated, redundant, one note fellating of career bureaucrats, would've been better as a longform piece in Vanity Faire instead of a short yet still padded book.
carax561's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.0
krism's review against another edition
4.0
Such an informative book. Our government is big, but that complex bureaucracy performs many missions that are crucial. Michael Lewis tells us that Trump wasn't prepared to win the election so hadn't laid the necessary groundwork for a transition. Plus, the new administration wasn't interested in investing in the future; only short term results mattered. So things like science, risk assessment, and replacing key people took a backseat. Lewis takes a deep look at three agencies: the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Commerce. You'll be surprised by the important things they do. What's the Fifth Risk? In Lewis's words, "It is the innovation that never occurs and the knowledge that is never created, because you have ceased to lay the groundwork for it. It is what you never learned that might have saved you." Yes, he's critical of Trump but he points out this has been going on for decades.
rlb424's review against another edition
5.0
This book should be required reading in schools, or handed to you your first day working for the government. Everyone should know more about how the system *actually* works. I left off a star, mostly because it should've been like 300 pages longer. Will keep fingers crossed for the paperback.
jfkaess's review against another edition
5.0
More insightful the Bob Woodward's book on Trump. The inside story of the complete mess trump made of choosing leaders for the various departments of the federal government. This book is going to make you angry. We elected a person with absolutely no experience in how the government works and what the departments needed to provide a functioning government. And that's what we got. A government that doesn't function.
wmapayne's review against another edition
4.0
What do you think about bureaucracy? Do you get all warm and fuzzy inside when daydreaming about the Department of Agriculture? Does the Department of Energy set your heart aflutter? Michael Lewis, author of “Moneyball” and “The Big Short,” feels that way, and thinks you should too.
“The Fifth Risk” is a book about bureaucrats. Not even the politically appointed ones that sometimes get in the news for some scandal or other—this book is about the career civil servants who make the whole government work, and who no one ever hears a word about. Lewis finds that these people’s jobs are so mundane precisely because they are so fundamental to making everything else in society tick. Who collects all the nation’s weather data, and distributes it, for free, to anyone? Who keeps a thousand tons of Manhattan Project nuclear waste from leaking into the Columbia River on any given day? Who developed the software that every coast guard in the world uses to predict where a swimmer lost at sea might have drifted? Who buys fireworks to keep geese away from airport runways? You guessed it; bureaucrats.
The thing that very few people realize about the bureaucracy—most especially those who claim the “deep state” is laden with political plotting—is that it is chock-full of technocratic nerds who love their country, and generally enjoy their jobs. A huge percentage of them are first-generation immigrants. Most have a pathological dislike of personal recognition, even for remarkable achievements. Many forewent better-paying positions in the corporate world to work on serious problems that very few people care about. They manage an enormous portfolio of unusual, deadly, chance-in-a-million dangers, so that no one else has to.
This is the “fifth risk”—that the political administration, failing to recognize what the bureaucracy does, could fail to properly utilize these remarkable people. “The Fifth Risk” is a call to recognize the quiet labor of all the people who make America a slightly more livable place—and a warning that mismanaging these people will undermine their work, and expose everyone to unwanted risks. “The Fifth Risk’s” cast of unusual characters, humanized and panegyrized by Lewis’s capable narrative pen, are collectively a window into the function of liberal institutions. They deserve higher praise.
“The Fifth Risk” is a book about bureaucrats. Not even the politically appointed ones that sometimes get in the news for some scandal or other—this book is about the career civil servants who make the whole government work, and who no one ever hears a word about. Lewis finds that these people’s jobs are so mundane precisely because they are so fundamental to making everything else in society tick. Who collects all the nation’s weather data, and distributes it, for free, to anyone? Who keeps a thousand tons of Manhattan Project nuclear waste from leaking into the Columbia River on any given day? Who developed the software that every coast guard in the world uses to predict where a swimmer lost at sea might have drifted? Who buys fireworks to keep geese away from airport runways? You guessed it; bureaucrats.
The thing that very few people realize about the bureaucracy—most especially those who claim the “deep state” is laden with political plotting—is that it is chock-full of technocratic nerds who love their country, and generally enjoy their jobs. A huge percentage of them are first-generation immigrants. Most have a pathological dislike of personal recognition, even for remarkable achievements. Many forewent better-paying positions in the corporate world to work on serious problems that very few people care about. They manage an enormous portfolio of unusual, deadly, chance-in-a-million dangers, so that no one else has to.
This is the “fifth risk”—that the political administration, failing to recognize what the bureaucracy does, could fail to properly utilize these remarkable people. “The Fifth Risk” is a call to recognize the quiet labor of all the people who make America a slightly more livable place—and a warning that mismanaging these people will undermine their work, and expose everyone to unwanted risks. “The Fifth Risk’s” cast of unusual characters, humanized and panegyrized by Lewis’s capable narrative pen, are collectively a window into the function of liberal institutions. They deserve higher praise.
mezzosherri's review against another edition
4.0
The book is at once a positive and a negative expose. On the positive side, Lewis’s reportage is a valuable reminder that a vast majority of the rank-and-file staff at federal agencies are public servants in the best sense of that term. The negative expose here is Lewis’s accounting of how ill-served these public servants are being by the current Presidential administration. Lewis tells of multiple agencies who prepared the material that are used to get a new presidential administration up to speed--only to have no one in Trump-land interested in taking the time to learn about this big complicated government they were going to be running.
The book is incredibly illuminating. And incredibly depressing.
Full review: https://anotherchange.net/2019/01/16/the-fifth-risk-by-michael-lewis/
The book is incredibly illuminating. And incredibly depressing.
Full review: https://anotherchange.net/2019/01/16/the-fifth-risk-by-michael-lewis/
jrobles76's review against another edition
5.0
Chris Hayes called Michael Lewis possibly, "the greatest non-fiction writer alive" and I have to agree. If I could have put my phone down amidst coronavirus coverage I might have finished this book in one sitting. Really illuminating given what is going on now.
Gives you great insight into career government officials and how many of them are not partisan and see their jobs in government as helping people and eliminating risk. The problem of eliminating risk is that if you do a good job, people don't think you're necessary. Read it now!
Gives you great insight into career government officials and how many of them are not partisan and see their jobs in government as helping people and eliminating risk. The problem of eliminating risk is that if you do a good job, people don't think you're necessary. Read it now!