Who Is Government?The Untold Story of Public Service
Review posted March 3, 2026.
Books on Tape, 2025. 6 hours, 43 minutes.
Review written February 19, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
I listened to this audiobook because the book was on President Obama's Summer 2025 Reading List. Listening to the audiobook was especially nice because the author of each essay read their own work, and W. Kamau Bell included audio interviews from his research.
This book is about public servants - about people who work for the federal government and the amazing work they do. I live in northern Virginia and many of my friends do awesome work for the government - so I was not surprised. It's also true that several of my friends had to leave their jobs after Trump devastated the federal work force, so I did find myself wondering how many of the amazing people featured in this book are still employed, doing good for the country and the world.
The premise of the book is to find outstanding federal employees and highlight the good work they do, unbeknownst to most of the country. Michael Lewis asked some great writers to participate, and besides two essays from him, this book includes pieces from Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, John Lanchester, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowell, and W. Kamau Bell.
Some examples of the stories I found super interesting (well, they were all really interesting) were the guy who saved tens of thousands of lives by changing mining regulations and putting an end to roof collapses in coal mines, and the IRS agent who brought down an international human trafficking ring (Can we put him on the Epstein case?), brought a drug lord to justice, and much more. One chapter wasn't about any one person, but was about the Consumer Price Index - and the tremendous amount of work that goes into it and how important it is. Of course as a librarian, I was especially interested in the chapter that highlighted a worker at the National Archives.
This book can maybe help us recover from the devastation in our government post-Trump? It presents an uplifting vision of government that does good work, that takes care of important work that doesn't make anyone a profit but touches lives in vitally important ways. This is what - and who - government is supposed to be.
If you live in the United States, I highly recommend this book to be informed about amazing things your government is doing - but also to hear some fascinating stories of good people doing good work.