The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy

Michael Lewis

Oct 2018 · W. W. Norton & Company

About this ebook

The New York Times Bestseller, with a new afterword

"[Michael Lewis’s] most ambitious and important book." —Joe Klein, New York Times

Michael Lewis’s brilliant narrative of the Trump administration’s botched first presidential transition takes us into the engine rooms of a government under attack by its leaders through willful ignorance and greed. The government manages a vast array of critical services that keep us safe and underpin our lives from ensuring the safety of our food and drugs and predicting extreme weather events to tracking and locating black market uranium before the terrorists do. The Fifth Risk masterfully and vividly unspools the consequences if the people given control over our government have no idea how it works.

Ratings and reviews

You. Yes, you. Read this book. Seriously. This is a brief glimpse of government service somewhere around the first Trump administration - but more than that, it's about the unsung people and the invisible institutions themselves that make the US Federal government what it is. And, broadly speaking, how objective-driven folks with a passion towards their work do their jobs in the civil service. They ain't making the big bucks, or the front page of the Times. But they're saving lives, helping businesses and consumers, and so much more. Yeah. Read this book. It's not that long. It's worth it.

It's amazing to think of how intertwined the government is in the lives of its citizens. Without agencies doing their work day in and day out, much of it behind the scenes, the citizens of this country would not be able to go about their daily lives. Although most people believe that the government is a big, bureaucratic mess, there is a need for the hard work performed by those individuals. We, as citizens, and government agencies need to find a happy medium as to the size, and more importantly, the role the government should have. This book was a definite eye opener, and sad to think how one administration could reverse decades of progress.

Wow I cant believe that some people dont care about life and what they do to others! It is very sad and crazy that some people would just keep lying just to get what they want no matter how much the other is hurt and gave his everything to make them happy!! I hope everyone reads this story it hits me at home.

About the author

Michael Lewis is the best-selling author of Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short, The Undoing Project, and The Fifth Risk. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his family.