Michael Lewis was 26 years old when he wrote about his experience as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers. Liar’s Poker is considered one of the books that defined Wall Street during the “greed is good” era of the 1980s.
Since then, he’s authored more than 30 books on the topics of finance, economics, and sports. He has a unique ability to take complex topics and break them down into stories about relatable people.
His latest work is: Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service.
In a departure from his typical solo approach to writing, Lewis enlists six of his author friends to write a chapter for the book (Lewis himself writes two).
Each chapter is a story about a specific individual, working in a non-glamorous area of government, doing amazing things. Through these stories, the reader is able to develop a better understanding of how government works for the people, through people committed to the idea of public service.
In a recent podcast, Lewis said “all these people (profiled in the book) have found the secret to living a meaningful life. They could all be far wealthier working outside the government, but they choose to work inside the government because they have a sense of mission.”
-RK