Who Is Government? A Book That Might Just Restore Your Faith in the System

This weekend I finished reading Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service, edited by Michael Lewis, and I have to say—I genuinely enjoyed it. And if you, like me, have spent the past few years wondering whether the machinery of our democracy is still being held together by anything more than duct tape and prayer, you might enjoy reading it too.

This isn’t a policy book or a partisan screed. It’s something much more refreshing—and, frankly, much more important. It’s a portrait of the people behind the scenes of our Government (as we called it during my Army days USG). Not the elected officials grabbing headlines or the appointees with slick talking points, but the career public servants who quietly go to work each day trying to keep our society from spinning off its axis.

Lewis and a team of journalists dive deep into eight stories. One in particular stayed with me: the story of Christopher Mark, a former coal miner from West Virginia who now works as a federal mine safety expert. Mark didn’t just study the problem of mine collapses—he lived it. He then used data and engineering to solve it. The software he helped develop has likely saved countless lives. And you’ve probably never heard of him.
That’s the point of this book. These people don’t do it for the limelight. They do it because they believe in the work—because, in many cases, they are the only ones doing it.
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Reading this book reminded me of something I often say to my friends: America doesn’t just run on innovation or capitalism or freedom. It runs on people showing up every day to do their jobs well, even when no one is watching. That’s as true for federal workers as it is for anyone else. The sad irony is that the more these civil servants succeed—by preventing disasters, protecting lives, or keeping systems running—the less we notice them.

Lewis doesn’t sugarcoat the reality, either. These stories are set against a backdrop of a shrinking, vilified federal workforce. In today’s political climate, public servants are too often treated as the enemy—called lazy, labeled inefficient, or pushed out altogether. That’s not just demoralizing. As Lewis argues, it’s dangerous. You hollow out the Government, and eventually, you hollow out society.

But here’s where the book really resonated with me: it made me hopeful. Because buried under all the dysfunction and noise, there are still people who believe that serving the public is worth it. Who believe that facts, data, and integrity still matter. And who reminds us—by their very existence—that the American Government is not some faceless machine. It’s made up of people like Chris Mark, who see a problem and refuse to look away.

Who Is Government? is not just a great read—it’s an important one. It reminds us that fixing what’s broken starts with recognizing what still works, and who’s still working to keep us safe, healthy, and moving forward.

So yes, I enjoyed reading it. Perhaps you will too.