Fascinating glimpse into what some of our federal agencies do, as well as a sobering reminder of the consequences of a presidential administration that has little concept how the government runs and what its functions are and appointing unqualified people to run the agencies. I would love to see Mr. Lewis do a follow up now, comparing the people currently running the same programs and departments, to see if there are actually improvements. Mr. Lewis's writing is, as always, engaging, making the complex manageable. ( )

This is the one book Donald Trump ought to read. And I’m not kidding. Most of the writing on the Trump presidency focuses on the chaos of the White House. This book looks at the bureaucracy affected by the actions and — more often than not — inaction at the top which threatens longstanding projects of the American people. Nuclear waste. Weather forecasting. Etc.

It also raises major conflicts of interest between Trump appointees and govt services that I hadn’t heard about yet.

Lewis wraps his story with the point of view that govt manages a series of natural, technological, and societal risks. Sometimes it manages them well, many it is still learning how to manage at all.

And this reveals a serious weakness in the American electoral system: that life is so complex these days that the voters have little understanding of what they have bargained for. That votes cast for party affiliation are based on the inertia in the system and not on the dynamic environment of governing today.

Earlier books have well pointed out that business is not interested in doing some things assigned to govt today, and that business often builds off the accomplishments of govt.

In some situations big business does succeed where govt lags behind.

But as I have said in earlier essays, govt is only the collective will and imagination of the people on a grander scale than barnraisings and church dinners.

Paranoia about the American govt is mostly overstated. ( )

3.5 stars. Well researched but not as compelling as some of his other works. ( )

This book, written with Lewis's usual good storytelling style, is horrifying.
It lays out the criminality of Trump's approach to the transition to his Presidency.

Even though I didn't great around to reading until after Trump was cast from office, the book still will stand as a cautionary tale for future generations (and even this one) about how our votes count, or not.

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A brief look into oft-overlooked aspects of our government -a great conversation-starter for those interested in what governing is, what it looks like, and what government should be. While there were certain times that the author allowed his own bias to taint his words, the illumination given within the text far outweighs his few indiscretions.

One larger concern I did have - no formal conclusion to wrap up the main threads of the work. His last paragraph did serve as a succinct end; I just wish there was a bit more to tie it up.

A quick read to spur your interest further. Recommended for those interested in U.S. government, bureaucracy, or the presidential transition of 2016. ( )

I've heard several interviews with Micheal Lewis and his topics interest me so I was very curious to read this but found it dissapointing. His writing is very good, he finds unusual people to tell their stories and he does a great job bringing them to life but it just read as a series of long-form magazine articles. There was never an attempt to bring it all into one narrative. I knew the narrative since I had heard interviews about the book, that government has to think about those 1 in a million risks, but he never really pulled all the threads together to make that argument. All of it was enjoyable to read but the entire book left me wanting something more substantial.

As a side note, this was published in 2018 and mentioned a pandemic as a risk way more times than I felt great about.

Government is a tool for people to come together and provide services so that more people overall can live good lives. Democracy is slow, and bureaucratic, but it is an ideal that I believe is worth striving toward. Lewis does a good job of explaining U.S. government successes and the depressing reality of the current administration's ignorance and willful destruction. :( Unfortunately for me, there wasn't much new content in this book. I had already listened to Lewis's Audible book, The Coming Storm about the U.S. weather service, and had already read his Vanity Fair article about Department of Energy, both of which were also included in this book and were about 2/3 of the content. ( )

Really great analysis on how government workers are only highlighted for their failures not their successes. The last chapter was a weird match thematically and kind of distracted from the book's thesis ( )

Great reveal of the Trump administration's disinterest in maintaining the departments of Commerce, Agriculture, and Energy, NASA and NOAA and the repercussions of having no stockpile of trained personnel to manage career employees. Disgraceful and should be screamed into the ears of all MAGAtts and the new House. Very discouraging. ( )

I can’t tell if this book is over-hyped or if it was just not a good fit for me. The writing is good, and I loved the personal stories, but it wasn’t surprising or really informative. On the other hand I’ve been fascinated by large bureaucracies for a long time and have researched these departments before. I think it would have been more impressive if it were new to me?
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“The Fifth Risk” digs a little deeper into the Trump debacle than the everyday news of his corruption, incompetence, impulsiveness and irrationality, just in case those were not enough to scare us to death. It discusses the various high level governmental appointments he has made and those he had not made but should have and tells us just how much we, and the rest of the worrld, are at risk due to his irrational approach to the Presidency. His anti-science, anti-data, anti-facts-over-opinions style of running the government should give even conservatives reason to be frightened. Basically, his approach is not to read, not to listen to others and to make decisions based on the idea that, “I know what I know. Don’t confuse me with facts.”
The book does a good job of detailing the background we need to know to fully understand the various departments of government and to understand just how serious the current political situation is.
It is difficult, however, to decide which is worse: Trump’s inability to govern or the Congress’s unwillingness to invoke the 25 th Amendment and replace him. ( )

Interesting take on how our former president did NOTHING to prepare for his time in office and on top of that, an appreciation for how our government works hard to keep us out of harm (and most of us do not even know this). ( )

The transition teams for the newly elected Presidents Bush and Obama showed up at the Departments of Energy, Commerce and Agriculture the day after those candidates became President-elect. The day after the 2016 Presidential Election officials of those departments were prepared to meet the Trump transition team, but nobody showed up. This was the first sign of the indifference and incompetence of our current administration. Michael Lewis does a fine job of showing how important our federal agencies are and how much of what they do is not known to the general public. Now we see that the very people chosen to head those agencies by the President also don't know and don't care. The 5th risk title came from a question the author asked Energy dept. officials. The first risk was a lost or stolen nuclear device and the next ones were out of control nukes in North Korea or Iran but the fifth risk was simple bad management. That is the one we have. Managers who don't know what they are doing and don't care. Read this book. It will scare you. ( )

it’s amazing that the only major catastrophe that occurred during the trump administration was a pandemic that killed over 500,000 people. it could have been much, much worse. ( )

This book was recommended to me by a dear friend of mine and I am happy to say that it lived up to my expectation. I am one of those people that is just completely exhausted by current politics, so I was skeptical at first. However, I appreciate that the author found a way to address the current administration's decisions without using his words as depraved ammunition, unlike many alternative sources. The main correlation that Lewis draws from his argument that kept me engaged was how science and politics go hand and hand, for better or for worse. I recommend this book to anyone interested in not only the politics that we hear on the news, but the factors that influence our daily lives that we may not even recognize until we feel the need to find someone to blame. Also, I recommend it to anyone interested in the stories of the unsung heroes that really keep this nation afloat. ( )

Every American needs to read this book now. ( )

The Fifth Risk is a 2018 non-fiction book by Michael Lewis that examines the transition and political appointments of the Donald Trump presidency, especially with respect to three government agencies: the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Commerce.

The important stuff is a bit boring, which puts it right in Michael Lewis' wheelhouse. This fast read starts as a narrative about Trump's feckless presidential transition. (The first six pages are simply outrageous.) But quickly Lewis begins searching for deep state actors, and instead finds apolitical managers quietly keeping the nation secure--a mission suddenly more vulnerable than if they'd been agents of the resistance.

A cashiered Department of Energy brainiac worries about loose nukes, the power grid, North Korea, Iran and, ahem, project management. Sure enough, Trump's political appointees have no plan. When they aren't rejecting all science, including management science, they're turning it to favor crony capitalists. Despite or due to their willful ignorance, death and despair have been averted. Which is more scary than outrageous.

Recommended for U.S. readers of either of two different factions: those who wonder what kinds of things their Federal taxes are doing, and those who appreciate how much they are getting and would like to learn even more. In a country where the total tax rate is 70% of that in western Europe. ( )

A non fiction book about the transition into the Trump administration and some of the decisions taken with regards to civil service in the following months. Instead of looking at the big picture Lewis picks certain individuals in civil service and explores their background and what Trump has changed since taking power. It is fair to say that a lot of these decisions were taken hastily and without appreciation of the ripple effect they caused. This was a decent read but both a little repetitive and not up to the same standard as his usual work in my opinion. ( )

Makes you love government

While in DC I did research about hospitals for books I was writing. By far the best outcomes were from the US government’s VA hospitals, but I could not get any of their staff to agree to be featured. This book is full of such staffers - effective but modest, seeking to hide from all attention so they could focus on their mission.

Michael Lewis is his usual self, a highly enjoyable story teller. ( )

Once again, Michael Lewis looks at a usually uninteresting subject, government infrastructure, and makes it endlessly fascinating.

First, this is a book that is anti-Trump. If you have a closed mind and can't bear to read anything that criticizes the Donald, then please read something more to your speed, like Ben Shapiro's book.

There are many super interesting stories, but the one I liked the most was the story of Art Allen. Allen was the Coast Guard's chief oceanographer for 35 years. During that time, his research led to a huge improvement in the success of search and rescue operations. Allen painstakingly researched how different things float and then put his findings into a book that became used all over the world. Allen's research was eventually incorporated into software being used by search and rescue teams. The research was created for the greater good, nothing more. But, like the others in this book, Allen left government service after Trump took over.

I sincerely hope that we can put the Trump administration behind us soon. If you need a few reasons why, read this book. ( )

An interesting book about the job done by departments of the US government. A bit weak as an anti-Trump political statement. ( )

A very eye opening discussion of Trump's approach to managing (or mismanaging) the executive branch. Apparently in several cases Trump's appointees failed to meet with their counterparts from the prior administration. They arrived with a very superficial understanding of what the various departments are responsible for managing. The report is made by telling very personal stories about dedicated and thoughtful people from the departments and their responsibilities. ( )

The back of the dust cover has praise blurbs for Michael Lewis. My favorite was from John Williams, New York Times Book Review, "I would read an 800-page history of the stapler if he wrote it." Me too. I felt like reading.

As I read I could not quite figure out what the fifth risk is. So I looked at the inside the fly leaf book description and was dismayed to see all the typo's there. Like the last sentence: "Michael Lewis finds them, and he asks them what keeps them up at right [sic]." Maybe keeping up at right is the fifth risk? Not having a good editor? In reviewing the text and by how he end the book I dug up the fifth risk is a rather sexy existential threat that comes from what you never really imagined as a risk. "It is what you fail to imagine that kills you." In Lewis style he uses a down home illustration of an Oklahoma Trump voter who always hoped a tornado would take her barn, just didn't imagine it would also take her house.

The same, the reader chuckles, as when she voted for Trump. ( )